23 Years of Atrocities in China, Bolstered by the CCP’s Illicit Dealings in the West

NEW YORK — July 20th, 2022 will mark 23 years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a systematic and brutal campaign to “eradicate” the spiritual discipline of Falun Gong – a traditional Buddhist-based practice from China that espouses truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

Among the more recent trends, the discriminatory and violent treatment of Falun Gong adherents in China increased two to four times during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite draconian lockdown mandates. The explanation for this increase lies in the despotic nature of the Chinese regime to silence the Falun Gong community, one of the largest whistleblowers of CCP crimes like the false COVID-19 narratives about the pandemic’s severity and government response.

The increase in persecution of Falun Gong was also fueled by the CCP’s ongoing “Zero-Out” campaign that utilizes loss of employment and housing, physical assault, and arrests in an effort to bring the number of Falun Gong practitioners in each province “to zero.” While responsible for increased suffering of Falun Gong practitioners, the “Zero-Out” campaign is failing its objective; tens of millions continue to practice and peacefully advocate for Falun Gong across China.

Additionally, the CCP is responsible for the horrific crime of forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience, a practice that has been ongoing since early 2000. According to conservative estimates, 60,000 to 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been killed annually by forced organ harvesting. Following the lead of Israel and other countries, the United Kingdom recently passed a bill to stem the surgeon-to-executioner pipeline and halt the exports of transplant equipment to China. We urge the U.S. Congress to join these nations and pass the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act.

According to a 2021 ground-breaking report by Freedom House, “China conducts the most sophisticated, global, and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression in the world.”

And Falun Gong is one of the CCP’s primary targets.

Since the early 2000s, Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S. and other countries were targeted for surveillance, harassment, burglary, and even violence. Furthermore, Falun Gong-affiliated initiatives faced a wide range of illicit CCP activity, ranging from threats to U.S. government leaders, businesses and venues that engage with the Falun Gong community, to more base tactics such as slashing of tires and physical assaults, including mediated attacks on Falun Gong information booths in New York City this February.

On these grounds, the Falun Dafa Information Center urges the U.S. government and other governments around the world to uphold human rights, stand in solidarity with the Falun Gong community in protecting freedom of belief, and fully expose the crimes of the CCP to the world.