Congressional Commission Demands CCP End Decades-Long Persecution of Falun Gong

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has demanded that the Chinese communist regime end its decades-long persecution of the peaceful meditation practice Falun Gong as the group marks the 25th anniversary of its appeal to the regime in Beijing for the right to freely practice their faith.

Speaking at the rally, Martha Flores-Vazquez, a Democrat and district leader from Queens, said she becomes emotional each time she attends an event that raises awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that features gentle, slow-moving exercises and is based on moral values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The practice was first introduced to the public in China in 1992.

The meditation practice was embraced by people from all walks of life. It quickly gained popularity across the country. Chinese authorities initially welcomed the practice for its benefits to citizens’ physical and mental health. The founder of the practice, Li Hongzhi, received multiple government awards for his contributions to society.

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With the practice’s immense popularity, the then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin viewed it as a threat to the regime’s authoritarian control over Chinese society. By 1999, the number of Falun Gong practitioners had exceeded that of CCP members.

In April 1999, in response to an article published in Tianjin, a northern city in China, that smeared and denounced the practice, Falun Gong practitioners held sit-ins outside the newspaper’s office to request a retraction. However, the Tianjin police cracked down on the peaceful protest and arrested 45 practitioners.

The arrests in Tianjin concerned the 70 million to 100 million adherents nationwide at the time. As a result, on April 25, 1999, about 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the CCP’s leadership compound in Beijing, to request the release of unlawfully detained practitioners. This gathering is the largest protest in communist China’s recent history.

However, less than three months later, on July 20, 1999, the CCP launched the brutal persecution of Falun Gong adherents across China. Since then, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been unlawfully detained, tortured, and killed for their organs.

Outside of China, the Falun Gong diaspora established the website Minghui.org, coordinating grassroots networks in China to supply first-hand accounts of abuse inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners. Engineers who practice Falun Gong pioneered software technologies to help people in China break through the CCP’s internet firewall to access uncensored information.

CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting

Over the past 25 years, Falun Gong practitioners have also been primary targets of forced organ harvesting, fueling China’s booming organ transplantation industry.

The legislation’s principal sponsor, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Commission on China, said that forced organ harvesting is “an atrocity, a crime against humanity, and a war crime” and that those who willingly engage in it will be held responsible.

Eva Fu contributed to this report.