Hybrid Event by CAP Freedom of Conscience, a secular European NGO with United Nations Consultative Status
Conference online: https://www.ganjingworld.com/live/1gfhddgebsf1GPtTABokszqwj15v1c
The ongoing Persecution of Falun Gong in China
by Lebin Ding, Falun Gong practitioner & human rights activist
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you so much, Mr. President Valle, for your invitation!
Recently, the number of Falun Gong practitioner deaths documented by Minghui, an overseas website covering the persecution of Falun Gong from first-hand accounts inside China, surpassed 5,000. In 2023 alone, 209 death cases of Falun Gong practitioners were newly reported.
On January 18, 2024, the European Parliament in Strasbourg adopted a resolution on the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China. The resolution calls for sanctions against perpetrators and entities involved in the persecution of Falun Gong.
The EU Resolution has addressed the fate and safety of the Chinese Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Ding Yuande and Mrs. Ma Ruimei, who are my parents. Last month, my father was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 15,000 RMB (approximately 2,000 Euro). As of today, my father has been detained illegally in the Rizhao City Detention Center for more than 8 months, and no family members have been allowed to visit him.
My father’s trial was among a wave of show trials against Falun Gong practitioners between November 28 and December 7, 2023. All of these practitioners were the victims of a mass arrest in May 2023 of about 70 Falun Gong practitioners in my hometown City Rizhao, Province Shandong.
The official who ordered and the mass arrest, Ms. Zhang Hui has strong military connections. This makes the possibility that these practitioners could be subjected to forced organ harvesting much higher, as the practice of removing organs from living prisoners of conscience is widely believed to be carried out by military hospitals.
Falun Gong, also called “Falun Dafa”, is a meditation practice in the Buddhist tradition that centers around the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. It was first introduced to the public in China on May 13, 1992. Before the persecution in China, even Chinese state media reported on the positive effects that Falun Gong has on the health of the body and mind.
But despite these benefits and encouraging people to be more honest, kind, and tolerant, the former state and party leader, Jiang Zemin, could not tolerate the popularity of Falun Gong. According to Chinese government estimates, by 1999 some 70 to 100 million Chinese, from farmers and engineers to high-ranking politicians and military officers, were practicing Falun Gong. This was more than the number of registered members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was about 60 million. Jiang officially started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, and issued a verbal order to this end: "Destroy their reputations, ruin them financially, and destroy them physically."
The authoritarian nature of the CCP does not let anyone think freely. To stay in power, it manipulates people according to its ideology. Its means of control are violence, propaganda, lies, and incitement of hatred. China's ancient culture places great emphasis on harmony between heaven, earth, and people, while the CCP claims that there is "boundless joy in fighting against heaven, earth, and people." It acts in complete disregard for international human rights stands, and even violates China’s own laws, as is the case in the persecution of Falun Gong.
In this regard, I would very much appreciate, if the UN member states would take the following actions:
1. Strongly urge the CCP to immediately end the persecution of Falun Gong in China and to immediately and unconditionally release all the Falun Gong practitioners like my father during China’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN;
2. Strongly urging the CCP to lead to prosecution and punishment of those responsible under articles 7 and 12 of the UN Convention against Torture;
3. Make your best efforts to disqualify the seat of PRC in the UN Human Rights Council;
4. Request the EU and your government to use the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime and national human rights sanctions regimes against all perpetrators and entities that have contributed to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and abroad;
5. Ask your government’s embassy to China for assistance in investigation on the forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience;
6. Request your government’s embassy to China to monitor the court process of Falun Gong practitioners like my father, as well as to visit them in detention centers or prisons.
