Austria: People in Graz Call for Action to End Persecution of Falun Gong

Falun Gong practitioners held activities in downtown Graz, Austria on August 8, 2020. They introduced Falun Gong and exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 21-year-long persecution.

A banner exposing the CCP’s state-sanctioned organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners drew the attention of many passersby who stopped to find out more and sign a petition calling for an end to the atrocities.

Passersby sign the petition calling for an end to the persecution.

A man from Netherlands stopped to learn more. He expressed concern about his hometown’s cooperation with China to build a 5G network. He wished the practitioners success.

A young couple from Italy signed the practitioners’ petition. They asked for some fliers in English and Italian. The young man works for a large corporation in Graz. He said that cooperation with the CCP should end as long as it commits such human rights crimes.

“I have seen you protesting the persecution for a long time,” a woman said, “I wish to know what this is about.” She got the whole picture from listening to the practitioners and signed the petition.

A young couple from Italy signs the petition.	A woman inquires about Falun Gong.

Passersby sign the petition condemning the atrocities committed by the CCP.

Raising Awareness at Cultural Festival
Falun Gong practitioners were invited to participate in the annual Mur River Cultural Festival. They set up booths at several locations along the river. Many tourists inquired about Falun Gong, and some learned the exercises.

A young education professional stopped at a Falun Gong booth and invited the practitioners to visit her organization and introduce Falun Gong.

Background
Falun Gong was first taught to the public in 1992. Nearly 100 million people across China were soon practising Falun Gong after experiencing improvements in their health and character. Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline's growing popularity as a threat to the CCP's atheistic ideology and issued an order to ban Falun Gong on July 20, 1999.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in the persecution over the past 21 years; the actual number is suspected to be very high. More have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply the organ transplant industry.

Under Jiang's personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Gong.

Facing the brutal persecution, Falun Gong practitioners raise awareness of the persecution, and spread the beauty and preciousness of the spiritual practice.