CECC Hearing on Falun Gong Persecution in China

On Tuesday (Dec. 18th) the US Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing on the human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Falun Gong is a spiritual meditation practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999.

[Christopher Smith, Chairman of CECC]: 

“The campaign has been severe, brutal, ugly, and vicious.” 

Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally detained, sent to forced labor camps, and subjected to torture for their beliefs.

But that may not be all.

[Xu Jianchao, Professor of Yale School of Medicine]: 

“Faun Gong practitioners are the most likely source of organs used in the transplant procedures in China over the past decade.”  

The forced organ harvesting allegations first surfaced in 2006. This October, 106 members of the US Congress wrote a dear colleague letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. They want the State Department to release any information it may have on the state-sanctioned transplant abuse.

Congressman Smith was one of the signees of the letter. He says the US needs to take decisive actions to stop illegal organ harvesting.

[Christopher Smith, Chairman of CECC]: 

“We need to speak out boldly, effectively, with great clarity about what is truly going on and then have a penalty phase. Those who do these things should be held to account. If not to go to prison, certainly not to be admissible to the United States by granting them a visa.”

[Sherrod Brown, Cochairman of CECC]: 

“China must end all repression of Falun Gong practitioners, guarantee their freedom of belief, and expression, and assembly and release all political prisoners.” 

Three US doctors have launched a petition under President Obama’s “We the People” initiative. The petition asks US government to quote “expose these crimes, stop them, and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Once the petition reaches over 25,000 signatures by January 1st, the Obama administration will be obligated to respond.

More at New Tang Dynasty Television

‘So horrific:’ Organ Harvesting Petition Creator Wants US to Act

Since 2006, investigators believe that most of the tens of thousands of organs used for transplants in China have come from prisoners of conscience, namely Falun Gong practitioners, who form the majority of such detainees.

Centurion said that officials in the United States likely have information about organ harvesting in China. The White House “We the People” petition that Centurion launched Dec. 2 asks President Barack Obama to make these records public.

“As a world leader in protecting human rights,” the petition reads, “the United States has a moral obligation to expose these crimes, stop them, and ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.”

Another initiator of the petition, Dr. Arthur Caplan, who heads the Division of Bioethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, told The Epoch Times earlier this month that he hopes the petition will put an end to the practice of organ harvesting in China.

“It’s a serious, serious violation. It’s certainly about as bad as things can get. We do not accept killing for getting organs. It’s a basic principle of medical ethics that you don’t do that,” Caplan said.

Please sign the Petition here

More at The Epoch Times

In Rare Move, Chinese Prison Guard Helps Petition for Falun Gong

A fingerprint belonging to a prison guard was among the 15,000 that were put on a petition in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province to protest against the wrongful [...]

More: The Epoch Times 

Amnesty International Issues Urgent Action for Abducted Falun Gong Practitioners

Villagers Threatened as Petition Circulates Among Politburo Standing Committee Members

NEW YORK -- Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action for Falun Gong practitioners at risk of torture as an entire village is threatened and coerced to retract a petition calling for their release.

"Falun Gong practitioners Wang Xiaodong and his sister Wang Junling have been detained, and are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment," the Urgent Action says. "They are prisoners of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and association."(read Amnesty press release / PDF)

In early May, Ms. Wang had circulated a petition in Zhouguantun Village, Botou City, Hebei Province calling for the immediate release of her brother who had been abducted by Chinese authorities on February 25, 2012. Mr. Wang was detained and held because of his practice of Falun Gong. Nearly every household in the village, 300 in all, signed their real names to the petition, and it was stamped as authentic by members of the village committee -- an unprecedented act of defiance of the Chinese Communist Party's 13-year campaign to stamp out Falun Gong.

A well placed source told The Epoch Times newspaper that officials at the highest level, including members of the Politburo Standing Committee, had seen the petition and were debating its significance, with some officials urging that the Falun Gong persecution be peacefully resolved. (news)

"We urge all members of the international community to join Amnesty's call, and demand China free these Falun Gong practitioners," says Falun Dafa Information Center executive director, Levi Browde. "This is a pivotal event in which the deeply held beliefs of so many Chinese throughout the country are revealed in the peaceful and principled appeal of these villagers. They will not stand by anymore and watch the regime brutally suppress innocent Falun Gong practitioners, and nor should we."

Background

Founded in 1999, the Falun Dafa Information Center is a New York-based organization that documents the rights violations of adherents of Falun Gong (or “Falun Dafa”) taking place in the People’s Republic of China. In July of 1999 China’s autocratic Communist Party launched an unlawful campaign of arrests, violence, and propaganda with the intent of “eradicating” the apolitical practice; it is believed certain leaders feared the influence of the practice’ 100 million adherents. The campaign has since grown in violence and scope, with millions having been detained or sent to forced labor camps. The Center has verified details of over 3,000 deaths and over 63,000 cases of torture in custody (reports / sources). Falun Gong is a traditional-style Buddhist “qigong” practice, with roots in the Chinese heritage of cultivating the mind/body for health and spiritual growth. 

More: Falun Dafa Information Center  

Petition to PM: Help end the persecution of Falun Gong on your trip to China

PETITION TO PRIME MINISTER HARPER

During the China visit, help end the persecution of Falun Gong and
free all Falun Gong prisoners of conscience immediately

Click here to sign the online petition and pass it on. Let's stop this injustice now.

I, the undersigned resident of Canada, draw the attention of the Prime Minister and the House of Commons to the following:

Whereas, Falun Gong is a peaceful and beneficial spiritual practice centred on the principles of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance" and a set of five meditation exercises;

Whereas, Falun Gong has been the most severely persecuted group in China since July 1999 when the Chinese Communist Party launched an "eradication" campaign against Falun Gong. The policy to "destroy their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and eliminate them completely" has led to the arbitrary detention and torture of hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners for their beliefs;

Whereas the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Mr. Manfred Nowak reported that 66% of the victims of alleged torture and ill treatment in China were Falun Gong practitioners. "The cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts of torture defy description."

Whereas, more than 3,477 practitioners have been verified as having been tortured to death as of January 15, 2012. The actual death toll is estimated to be in the tens of thousands, as the Chinese regime imposes an information blockade, and reporting these cases to outside authorities "constitutes a severe crime of leaking state secrets.”

Whereas, the U.S. State Department's 2006-2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in China reported that Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in forced labour camps. Currently, 11 of those imprisoned practitioners have close Canadian family ties, and are serving jail terms of up to seven years.

Whereas, human rights lawyers, such as Gao Zhisheng, who defended Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to harassment, revocation of licence to practice law, arrest, torture, and imprisonment.

Therefore, on your upcoming trip to China, I respectfully urge you to call on the Chinese regime to stop the persecution of Falun Gong and release all Falun Gong prisoners of conscience and all human rights defenders immediately, including the 11 practitioners with close Canadian family ties.