(Clearwisdom.net) July 20, 1999, holds significant meaning to any Falun Gong practitioner. My life and my entire family's lives have changed dramatically due to the persecution initiated on that day by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although it has been 11 years, what happened on that day is still especially vivid in my memory.

After graduating from the university, I went to the coastal city of Dalian in Liaoning Province to work. On July 20, 1999, I went to do the Falun Gong exercises at a local practice site and then went to work, as usual. While at the practice site, I received a cell phone message from my aunt Wang Qiuxia (who later died as a result of the persecution). She told me that many practitioners who volunteered as points of contact for the local practice site had suddenly been arrested that morning and that many practitioners were going to request their release at the municipal government. I immediately decided to go with them.

A similar incident had previously happened in Tianjin, as a result of which many practitioners had gone to appeal to the Beijing Appeals Office on April 25. At the time, everyone thought that the issue regarding Tianjin police illegally arresting practitioners was resolved with the attention of the then-premier. The People's Daily publication, which had published false information slandering Falun Gong prior to April 25, also subsequently published a retraction affirming that there was nothing wrong with the practice. So, it did not make sense to any of us that police were now making sudden arrests again.

So, on this July 20, I quickly asked for a leave of absence from work and took a taxi to People's Square in Dalian's city center shortly after 1 p.m. Before the car got close to People's Square, the driver told me that he could not drive into the square because the road was blocked by police. I had a feeling that the matter was quite serious. When I arrived at the square, many fellow practitioners--men and women of all ages--had already gathered outside the municipal government building. It was very hot, and we all stood on the street in an orderly fashion, without taking any extreme action. The policemen also appeared very relaxed, as our group was very peaceful and gave them no need to worry.

Then my cell phone rang again, and I learned that my then-girlfriend (now my wife) had traveled to visit me without advanced notice. She was not a practitioner, but I brought her with me to appeal. We had no idea that this day was going to have a huge impact on our future.

In the morning of July 21, when we continued the appeal outside of the government building, along with four to five thousand others, my wife witnessed the start of the violent persecution from a short distance away. This is her personal account of that scene: "In the crowd, I saw a thin, petite high-school-aged girl being lifted by three or four police officers and then fiercely thrown down onto the street. She could not move and sent out a painful groan. Several middle-aged women helped her up. I was shocked that authorities could treat unarmed, common people with such cruelty. Then I heard police shouting: 'Quickly, catch that one with the camera!' I followed the sound and saw a policeman grab a woman's hair by one hand and violently strike her head with the other, while the camera flew off into the crowd. A big clump of the woman's hair was pulled off. Practitioners near the scene shouted, 'Don't hit people!' Although I was not a Falun Gong practitioner, my confidence in the government quickly deteriorated. However, at the time I did not know that much worse tortures by the CCP would follow."

Then police cleared people from the nearby wall of the government building, but we still managed to walk around it. When we arrived next to the government gate, people formed rows and held each other by the arms. I was in the third row, while my wife was in the second row. By then, the police had transferred many vehicles to the square. A group of policemen with and without uniforms encircled us and proceeded to hit us and push us toward their vehicles. My girlfriend's arm was deeply bruised as a result of being pulled by the policemen. All the practitioners were taken to a school in a suburb and forced to register, and we were only released after dark.

The next day, July 22, all of the news broadcasts in China began to slander Falun Gong. Our lives from then on were turned upside down.

Afterwards, the truth gradually emerged. Jiang, the then head of the CCP, was adamant about persecuting Falun Gong. On the night of April 25, members of the Politburo held an emergency meeting, where Jiang sought to maintain his power and initiated a lie that practitioners attacked the Beijing government headquarters. He then sent a letter to CCP members, in which he falsely accused the April 25 appeal of having been "planned and directed" by Falun Gong's founder Master Li Hongzhi behind the scenes. Out of the seven core members of the CCP Politburo, only Jiang approved of the persecution of Falun Gong.