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International Religious Freedom Report: Condemn the Persecution of Falun Gong

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The U.S. Department of State released its 2013 annual report on International Religious Freedom. The report says that last year, the number of people forced to leave their home due to their faith has reached a historical high. The report strongly condemns the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong. It urges China to release Falun Gong practitioners and human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.
2014-08-01 02:11 AM ESTLast Updated: 2014-08-01 02:16 AM EST



The U.S. Department of State released its 2013 annual report on International Religious Freedom. The report says that last year, the number of people forced to leave their home due to their faith has reached a historical high. The report strongly condemns the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong. It urges China to release Falun Gong practitioners and human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

The report says that although Masanjia Labor Camp has been closed, increased detention of Falun Gong practitioners around sensitive dates still continues.

“It was reportedly said that the CCP instructs the district residential committee to report information regarding Falun Gong practitioners to officials in return for cash rewards,” the report says.

Tom Malinowski, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, openly condemned the persecution of Falun Gong. He highlighted the CCP’s persecution policy of Falun Gong and urged the Chinese regime to release Falun Gong defender and lawyer Gao Zhisheng as scheduled in August.

Since 1999, China has been listed as a Country of Particular Concern due to its religious freedom violations, the report says.

Theresa Chu, spokesperson of Human Rights Lawyers For Falun Gong: “The persecution of Falun Gong has lasted for 15 years. Actually, in many countries, particularly in Europe and the U.S., there are governmental reports about this. These reports reveal that the persecution of Falun Gong hasn’t been lessened after the downfall of Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang. The severe persecution manifests around sensitive dates with the large-scale arrest of Falun Gong practitioners. The situation is still severe now in 2014.”

The report points out that Falun Gong hasn’t been protected under the law in China. The report also shows concern for Falun Dafa Association member Li Chang. It says, “Falun Gong practitioner Li Chang has been sentenced to 18 years in jail. Li was a volunteer assistant of Falun Gong. He co-organized a peaceful protest in 1999, and is currently still being held in jail. Falun Gong practitioner Yu Changxin was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 2000, and he is still in jail.”

Theresa Chu: “Whether or not Gao Zhisheng can be released as scheduled, whether or not the Falun Gong assistant can be released, whether Falun Gong will have to continue to suffer severe persecution in China; We say it is like a kind of indicator. Thus, the U.S. can stand up and openly demand Gao Zhisheng’s release, as well as a group of Falun Gong practitioners that are currently facing persecution as mentioned in the report. We think it is significant.”

The report lists several cases of the persecution. “In November 2012, Beijing police arrested Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Fengying as she was shopping,” it said. Zhang’s daughter explained that at that time, Zhang was telling a resident about the benefits of Falun Gong. The regime transferred Zhang to Tiantanghe Women’s Labor Camp for two years.”

Zhu Keming was the first Falun Gong practitioner who sued Jiang Zemin. Zhu said that Zhang Jie, another practitioner who sued Jiang, was arrested and persecuted to death soon after. During Zhang’s five year jail sentence, he faced brutal tortures in jail and nearly died.

Zhu Keming: “From my personal experience in China, I noticed that people only knew the surface of China’s human rights status. It is far worse actually. Falun Gong practitioners in prison were treated worse than inmates. Their human rights conditions were far worse than that of criminals. People are still unclear about the persecution of Falun Gong.”

Theresa Chu points out that the live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners still carries on in China, but it wasn’t mentioned in the U.S.’ report.

Theresa Chu: “Regarding the atrocities of live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, no one should avoid crimes against humanity on earth. However, the report didn’t mention it. We believe the U.S. Department of State still has some evidence and documents of the CCP’s organ harvesting in its hands. We hope the U.S. government, being a big human rights powerhouse, when faced with such inhumane atrocities, should help stop the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners both in the report and in action.”
 
I would rather die than allow the government to condemn and arrest people for having any sort of religious belief. Another classless, deplorable move from China and the CCP.
 
Their economy may be crawling out of the dark ages but a lot of things aren't yet.
 
On 13 May 1992, Li Hongzhi gave his first public seminar on Falun Gong (alternatively called Falun Dafa) in the northeastern city of Changchun. In his hagiographic spiritual biography, Li Hongzhi is said to have been taught ways of "cultivation practice" by several masters of the Buddhist and Daoist traditions, including Quan Jue, the 10th Heir to the Great Law of the Buddha School, and a master of the Great Way School with the Taoist alias of True Taoist from the Changbai Mountains. Falun Dafa is said to be the result of his reorganizing and writing down the teachings that were passed to him.
 
Falun Gong is distinct from other qigong schools in that its teachings cover a wide range of spiritual and metaphysical topics, placing emphasis on morality and virtue, and elaborating a complete cosmology.[14] The practice identifies with the Buddhist School (Fojia), but also draws on concepts and language found in Taoism and Confucianism.[11] This has led some scholars to label the practice as a syncretic faith.[15]
 
Demographic surveys conducted in China in 1998 found a population that was mostly female and elderly. Of 34,351 Falun Gong practitioners surveyed, 27% were male and 73% female. Only 38% were under 50 years old.[98] Falun Gong attracted a range of other individuals, from young college students to bureaucrats, intellectuals and Party officials.[99][100] Surveys in China from the 1990s found that between 23% - 40% of practitioners held university degrees at the college or graduate level—several times higher than the general population.[40]
 
At the end of the rally Tenzin Dolkar of Students for a Free Tibet turned to address the rows of Falun Gong practitioners dressed in their characteristic yellow t-shirts that were arrayed behind the speaker’s stand.

Dolkar said that the Chinese Communist Party wants every oppressed group in China, including the Tibetans and the Falun Gong practitioners, to be isolated from one another. She called upon all of those who suffer under the CCP to unite together in their opposition to it.
 
Independent filmmaker Jeremy Taylor gave a spirited account of how the Chinese regime violates “everything,” listing people, human rights, the environment, other countries, borders, treaties, and contracts.

Taylor professed his love for the Chinese people, but said, “The Chinese Communist Party makes me nauseated.”
 
Soon afterward, a movement to renounce all association with the Chinese Communist Party began. To date 178 million Chinese people have done so, according to the website for the Global Service Center for the Quitting Chinese Communist Party.

At the end of the rally Tenzin Dolkar of Students for a Free Tibet turned to address the rows of Falun Gong practitioners dressed in their characteristic yellow t-shirts that were arrayed behind the speaker’s stand.
 
At the end of the rally Tenzin Dolkar of Students for a Free Tibet turned to address the rows of Falun Gong practitioners dressed in their characteristic yellow t-shirts that were arrayed behind the speaker’s stand.

Dolkar said that the Chinese Communist Party wants every oppressed group in China, including the Tibetans and the Falun Gong practitioners, to be isolated from one another. She called upon all of those who suffer under the CCP to unite together in their opposition to it.
 
Their economy may be crawling out of the dark ages but a lot of things aren't yet.

Communists will always be communists. Nothing about that will ever change.
 
Falun Gong involves doing gentle, meditative exercises and living according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Introduced in China in 1992 it spread rapidly. By 1999 100 million people had taken up the practice, according to media reports. In July of that year, the-then head of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, ordered a campaign to “eradicate” the practice.
 
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