DC Rally Urges ‘Aggressive Actions’ by Congress to Finish CCP’s Compelled Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners – #information
With the U.S. Capitol within the background, audio system at a rally highlighted the rising consciousness of the compelled organ harvesting of detained Falun Gong practitioners and the Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP)’s risk to america.
“Compelled organ harvesting is among the most barbaric practices in human historical past. And it’s previous time for actual accountability,” Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) mentioned, noting that Congress should take “aggressive actions” towards the crime. “America is lastly waking as much as the risk posed by China. And all of us want to listen to your story, perceive how brutal the CCP has been to you, and be taught out of your expertise.”
July 20 marked 23 years because the Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP) launched its sweeping marketing campaign to eradicate Falun Gong, a religious observe involving meditative workouts and a set of ethical teachings primarily based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The observe’s offense was its reputation, drawing an estimated 70 million to 100 million adherents in China by 1999. It was thus perceived as a risk to the Social gathering’s authoritarian management over society.
Falun Gong practitioners at a rally on the Nationwide Mall in Washington on July 21, 2022, maintain a wreath in reminiscence of victims of the Chinese language regime’s persecution of Falun Gong. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Instances)‘Congress Completely Should Act’
Audio system on the rally additionally urged help for the Cease Compelled Organ Harvesting Act of 2021, laws that might sanction these liable for compelled organ harvesting and prohibit the export of medical gadgets used within the grisly observe.
An impartial tribunal in 2019 discovered that the Chinese language regime had, for years, been killing detained prisoners of conscience—primarily Falun Gong practitioners—for his or her organs to provide the organ transplant market on a “important scale,” a observe that continues at this time.
Ambassador Andrew Bremberg, president of the Victims of Communism Memorial Basis (VOC), a Washington-based advocacy group, urged Congress to take the lead in passing the laws.
“It’s now recognized that because of CCP insurance policies, extremely skilled surgeons have, for many years, been became executioners of prisoners on the working desk,” he mentioned, referring to the findings of VOC fellow Matthew Robertson’s April paper within the American Journal of Transplantation.
“Tens of millions of people that observe Falun Gong in China have been imprisoned, tortured, or killed,” Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) mentioned in his video message to rally attendees. “If we stay silent within the face of those transgressions, we neglect that ethical crucial and achieve this on the peril of civil society.”
In his video speech, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) mentioned: “America has an obligation to uphold and promote the flexibility to observe faith free of presidency hindrance. Permitting the Chinese language Communist Social gathering to proceed this vicious cycle of persecution with out penalties is a dereliction of ethical obligation.”
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) additionally despatched his digital speech: “China’s persecution of the Falun Gong, whether or not it’s compelled organ harvesting, unjust imprisonment, or compelled labor, is evil. It’s perverse.
“Congress completely should act, making certain that tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners should not denied the liberty to train their spiritual perception.”
Perry additionally famous that he launched the Falun Gong Safety Act final December.
The laws would sanction people who’re concerned or have contributed to compelled organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and asks the State Division to guage whether or not the persecution constitutes genocide.
Greater than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners attend a rally and march in Washington on July 21, 2022, to induce an finish to the Chinese language regime’s 23-year-long persecution of the religious observe. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Instances)Spiritual Freedom Worsened in China
Commissioner Eric Ueland of the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom (USCIRF) mentioned the spiritual freedom situation in China has quickly deteriorated prior to now decade.
“Not because the worst day of the Cultural Revolution have you ever seen such widespread and horrible persecution of non secular communities in China, together with the Falun Gong,” Ueland mentioned on the rally.
He mentioned USCIRF had repeatedly famous the persecution of Falun Gong and that some practitioners had even “died by the hands of Chinese language officers.”
“This shocks the conscience and will seize our souls,” Ueland mentioned.
Annie Boyajian, a vp at Freedom Home, a human rights group, mentioned the persecution of Falun Gong had worsened over the previous 5 years, particularly in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. She additionally frightened that Falun Gong practitioners and Catholics in Hong Kong could be focused within the coming yr.
“Many might not know that a few of the architects of repression in Xinjiang perfected these strategies on Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners,” Boyajian mentioned.
The Cease Compelled Organ Harvesting Act of 2021 has to move this yr, or it must be reintroduced in 2023. In March 2021, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) launched the Senate model of the laws, and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.) launched the Home model.
Arthur Zhang, a U.S. Air Drive employees sergeant primarily based in Florida and a Falun Gong practitioner, on the Nationwide Mall in Washington on July 21, 2022. (Lisa Fan/The Epoch Instances)Safeguarding Free Will in China and the US
Arthur Zhang, a U.S. Air Drive employees sergeant primarily based in Florida, took the time without work to take part within the occasion. To him, elevating consciousness of the persecution of Falun Gong in China and safeguarding america are two sides of the identical coin; they’re each about upholding advantage, his “precedence in life.”
When the persecution started in a single day on July 20, 1999, Zhang was a 17-year-old highschool senior in a small county in China’s Hebei Province. He had begun working towards Falun Gong three years earlier.
For following Falun Gong’s tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance and refusing to denounce them to the CCP, he misplaced a chance to attend a college in Beijing, an opportunity to attend his selection of graduate faculty, and endured torture throughout his one-and-a-half yr time period at a Chinese language labor camp.
In February 2001, at a reeducation camp dispatch workplace within the suburb of Beijing, a dozen policemen shocked 4 Falun Gong practitioners with electrical batons for declaring, “Falun Dafa is sweet.”
Zhang was one of many 4. His tooth had been clenched in a decent chunk because the rods landed on his face, mouth, and neck. He couldn’t open his mouth and misplaced management of his facial muscle groups. As electrical batons buzzed loudly subsequent to his ears, he barely held on to his thoughts.
“I’m not useless. I’m not useless,” Zhang mentioned he saved telling himself. “I received’t say Falun Dafa is unhealthy, even when I had been to die.”
In January 2002, Zhang was launched from Tuanhe Labor Camp in Beijing.
After graduating from a college in Hebei Province, he labored in Shanghai for a U.S. company, by means of which he obtained a visa to go to america. On account of an utility in 2012, he was granted asylum in 2014.
As he was searching for a option to give again to america, he got here throughout the U.S. Air Drive’s recruitment info in 2016. The values of “integrity first,” “service earlier than self,” and “excellence in all we do” resonated with him deeply. A lot in order that he grew to become a rookie at 35, twice as outdated because the youngest recruit in his 52-member cohort.
The Air Drive’s core values “are much like the ideas taught by Falun Gong, resembling to be trustworthy, to think about others first, to sacrifice, and to bear our obligations,” Zhang informed The Epoch Instances.
The then-35-year-old had by no means been to a health club earlier than becoming a member of the Air Drive. But with grit, he handed the bodily check and graduated in 2017 with a distinguished scholar award.
Zhang mentioned he needed to supply insights gained from life expertise to assist safeguard america, his adopted nation that he believes is underneath assault from communism on many fronts.
To him, the CCP imposes its will on folks, takes away their free will, and deprives them of important considering and choices to make their very own selections.
“Of all of the folks [who have] had their free will destroyed by the CCP, they both blindly comply with it or hate it. But they’re underneath the CCP’s management,” Zhang mentioned. “Falun Gong has enabled me to transcend that and see the CCP past my very own persecution expertise.”
The service member mentioned he needed to assist extra folks lead a standard life by ridding them of the CCP’s management and restoring their free will. So he was glad to see that the federal grand jury not too long ago indicted 5 folks—Chinese language and non-Chinese language alike—for allegedly repressing Chinese language dissidents on U.S. soil.
Zhang mentioned Chinese language brokers have carried out the identical to Falun Gong practitioners in america for many years. Elevating consciousness in regards to the persecution of Falun Gong in China would assist safe america and its values, he mentioned.
Different audio system on the rally included Piero Tozzi, senior adviser to Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.); Sean Nelson, authorized counsel on the Alliance Defending Freedom Worldwide; Arielle Del Turco, assistant director of the Middle for Spiritual Liberty on the Household Analysis Council; Darren Spinck, affiliate analysis fellow of Henry Jackson Society; Christina Sturgeon, assistant to the chief director at Jubilee Marketing campaign USA; Alan Adler, government director of Mates of Falun Gong; Luna Lyu, a sufferer of the persecution of Falun Gong; Rong Yi, president of the New York-based Tuidang (Stop the Social gathering) Middle; and Wang Zhiyuan of the World Group to Examine the Persecution of Falun Gong. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) additionally despatched a video greeting to the rally attendees.
The rally was adopted by a march from the Nationwide Mall to Freedom Plaza. A candlelight vigil was scheduled for the night of July 21 in entrance of the Washington Monument.
From The Epoch Instances
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