By John Kusumi, China Support Network

April 25 in 1999 was the first occasion when Falun Gong made headlines in the mainstream Western world. The largest Beijing protest since Tiananmen Square saw 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners holding a silent protest, massed near the leadership compound (Zhongnanhai) of Beijing — headquarters of the Communist Party which continues to run China and to persecute Falun Gong to this day.

It is the 12th anniversary of that crackdown, but because it is not over yet, there continue to be implications for the leaders of the Western world.

The following is the text of a speech, given at a New York rally on Saturday, April 23, 2011.

FLUSHING, NY (CSN) — Greetings from the China Support Network. Today is an anniversary day for Falun Gong, the group of meditating qi gong practitioners with teachings that seem like a variety of Buddhism. Falun Gong arose in China at a time when China itself is a troubled place.

The evil men of the 20th century famously include Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Chairman Mao Zedong began the regime that has ruled China with an iron fist ever since 1949. Of course, China has 5,000 years of non-Communist history prior to 1949, but most adults today came of age during the reign of Chairman Mao’s Chinese Communist Party, the CCP.

The evil of the 20th century didn’t end with Mao. Mao was succeeded by Deng Xiaoping and by Jiang Zemin.

Now it is the 21st century, and Falun Gong is still on the receiving end of evil!

Falun Gong is persecuted, but it also has “company on persecution row.” Uighurs are persecuted, Mongols are persecuted, house church Christians are persecuted, bloggers are persecuted, journalists are persecuted, and lawyers are persecuted — indeed, anyone who would stand up for justice is face to face with brutal oppression.

Pro-democracy political dissidents remain on the receiving end of evil. Now the Tiananmen generation is joined by the Jasmine generation in the prisons of Communist China. The famous artist Ai Weiwei has recently been taken into custody.

And we should note that Tibetans are once again on the receiving end of evil — reports tell us that on Thursday April 21, Chinese authorities rounded up 300 Tibetan monks and killed two civilians who protested that action at Kirti monastery.

Our gathering today is to remember the beginning of the crackdown on Falun Gong. That crackdown remains the largest and deadliest one going. In fact, history will remember it as an ugly holocaust of persecution and genocide.

I believe also that history will remember the silence of Western leaders and news outlets. Through their policies of free trade with Communist China, they have continued to lavish rewards upon the communists, dictators, tyrants and thugs who oppress China. With their deliberate blind eye for this persecution, they have brought shame to a Western world that once vowed, “Never again” in the face of genocide.

Let me be clear. Their China policy is no better than “leaving the Jews in the gas chambers.” Their China policy is one of moral cowardice, and reveals craven indifference to human suffering. Western China policy is akin to a crime against humanity of its very own.

Someone such as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ought to stop the Western complicity. Freedom will come to China, and the equivalent of the Gates of Auschwitz will be opened up. We will gain a better view of the points that I am making here.

The international human rights community was pleased by the opening of the International Criminal Court in 2002. The upshot of the ICC is to show that genocide has consequences. War crimes have consequences. And crimes against humanity have consequences.

Facing genocide, the Western world once vowed, “Never again.” The ICC now provides a tool that can assist in fulfilling that vow. Western leaders should:

face these facts;

use that tool and any clatter that’s necessary to ultimately:

Stop this genocide!

This episode of history is disgraceful for China, and it is shameful for the West. Even while that is true, I like to end my speeches by saying:

Thank you for having me — god bless China — and god bless America! Thank you again!