Jul 13, 2011 - Introduced in Senate. This is the original text of the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the Senate for consideration. This is the latest version of the bill currently available on GovTrack.
SRES 232 IS
112th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 232
Recognizing the continued persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China on the 12th anniversary of the campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to suppress the Falun Gong movement, recognizing the Tuidang movement whereby Chinese citizens renounce their ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates, and calling for an immediate end to the campaign to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 13, 2011
Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. COBURN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
RESOLUTION
Recognizing the continued persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China on the 12th anniversary of the campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to suppress the Falun Gong movement, recognizing the Tuidang movement whereby Chinese citizens renounce their ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates, and calling for an immediate end to the campaign to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
Whereas Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is a Chinese spiritual discipline founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992 that consists of spiritual and moral teachings, meditation, and exercise based upon the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance;
Whereas, during the mid-1990s, Falun Gong acquired a large and diverse following, with as many as 70,000,000 practitioners at its peak;
Whereas, on April 25, 1999, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Beijing to protest growing restrictions by the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the activities of Falun Gong practitioners, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China responded with an intensive, comprehensive, and unforgiving campaign against the movement that began on July 20, 1999, with the outlawing of Falun Gong;
Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China has stated that it fully respects and protects citizen’s freedom of religion in accordance with the law, but that ‘Falun Gong is neither a religion nor a spiritual movement; rather it is an evil cult against humanity, science and society’;
Whereas, on October 30, 1999, China’s National People’s Congress promulgated an ‘anti-cult’ law (article 300 of the Criminal Law), effective retroactively, to suppress the Falun Gong movement and thousands of religious sects across the country;
Whereas, since 1999, more than 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners have reportedly served time in prison, with estimates of those in reeducation through labor camps reaching as many as 125,000 people, and Falun Gong practitioners are said to constitute approximately two-thirds of all prisoners and detainees of conscience in China (roughly 15,000 people);
Whereas the publication of ‘Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party’ in November 2004 by the United States-based newspaper, the Epoch Times, led to the creation of the Tuidang movement;
Whereas the Tuidang movement, which translates literally as ‘withdraw from the communist party’, has encouraged as many as 90,000,000 people to publicly renounce their membership in the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates since 2004;
Whereas, in the lead up to and during the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, authorities conducted propaganda campaigns portraying ‘cults’ like Falun Gong as ‘dangers’ to society that ‘wreck families’ and ‘poison the minds of youth’, carried out strict surveillance of practitioners, and detained and imprisoned large numbers of practitioners;
Whereas, according to estimates by the Department of State and human rights organizations, since 1999, from several hundred to a few thousand Falun Gong adherents have died in custody from torture, abuse, and neglect;
Whereas a review of the Government of the People’s Republic of China by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review in February 2009 reiterated concerns regarding human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners, including arrests, detention, torture, and reeducation through labor camps;
Whereas the Department of State’s 2010 Human Rights Report on China cited reports of Falun Gong adherents being committed to mental health facilities, medicated against their will, and forcibly subjected to electric shock treatment;
Whereas the Department of State’s 2010 Human Rights Report on China stated that the Government of the People’s Republic of China automatically censored e-mail and web chats based on an ever-changing list of sensitive key words, such as ‘Falun Gong’, and periodically blocked the blogs of a number of prominent activists, artists, scholars, and university professors; and
Whereas the 2010 Annual Report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China found that lawyers involved in human rights advocacy work--including in legal cases involving Falun Gong practitioners and others deemed by the Government of the People’s Republic of China to threaten ‘social stability’--have been harassed by the Government of the People’s Republic of China based on who their clients are and the causes those clients represent: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) expresses solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners and their families for the lives, freedoms, and rights they lost for adhering to their beliefs and practices;
(2) calls upon the Chinese Communist Party to immediately cease and desist from its campaign to persecute Falun Gong practitioners and promptly release all Falun Gong practitioners who have been confined, detained, or imprisoned in retaliation for pursuing their right to hold and exercise spiritual beliefs;
(3) emphasizes to the Government of the People’s Republic of China that freedom of religion includes the right of Falun Gong practitioners to freely practice Falun Gong in China;
(4) calls upon the President, the Secretary of State, and Members of Congress to--
(A) mark the anniversary of the Government of the People’s Republic of China’s official repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement;
(B) express solidarity with persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China; and
(C) meet with Falun Gong practitioners; and
(5) expresses support for volunteers and participants of the Tuidang movement for their peaceful efforts to reclaim Chinese history and culture, and for their pursuit of a fair and open government, a free people, and a society rooted in the practice of virtue.
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