Recalling Persecution of Falun Gong in China | CLIP | China In Focus

On this day 23 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party officially started clamping down on Falun Gong. We hear from someone who practices the meditation discipline on how he refused to back down in the face of persecution. At the same time, events across the U.S. are raising awareness about the continued persecution, and lawmakers in Washington are showing their support. It's long been believed that Beijing holds major influence over the NBA. Now, a star athlete-turned-activist is pointing to certain recordings as proof of that suspicion. And an official Chinese report says at least 10 new COVID-19 variants have been detected in the past two weeks. Authorities are calling it a warning sign of a surge. Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. On this day 23 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party officially banned spiritual practice Falun Gong, launching a nationwide suppression campaign against the meditation discipline. Hendi Di's Chen Yiwu sat down with a Falun Gong practitioner to hear about what he endured inside a Chinese labor camp and how he found the strength to keep going. The situation was really one of life or death. Is it worth giving up my life for justice? This is the question Stephen Yu asked himself when the Chinese Communist Party began its suppression campaign on Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. But to understand his story, let's start from the beginning. Yu began practicing the spiritual discipline in 1998 after witnessing the miraculous recovery of a friend's mother. My son was in a critical condition at that time. She had a herniated cervical disc. It was on the verge of death. I went to visit because I wanted to say goodbye, thinking it might be the last time we would see each other. But to my surprise, she radiated health. She practically jumped up when I saw her and gave me the book, Zhuan Falun. Zhuan Falun is the primary book of teachings of the Falun Dafa practice. When it was published in 1996, it became a national bestseller in China. I felt like this was something I had been looking for my whole life. When in high school, I was actually already thinking about this. My studies were very intense at the time, and I asked myself if my life would always be in this state. I asked myself, why am I trying so hard in my studies? Is it to achieve some high job position or get rich? But after I read Zhuan Falun, I came to understand the true purpose of life, that is to improve oneself and eventually return to where we came from, to heaven. The discipline spread quickly across China. In seven years, an estimated 70 to 100 million people were practicing, making it one of the largest spiritual communities in the country. But in 1999, the communist regime deemed the practice's popularity a threat to its power and launched a brutal persecution campaign targeting Falun Gong. On July 22, Yu and other Falun Gong practitioners were taken into custody by police for half a day. He said that at the time, he deeply reflected on the situation and resolved not to give up the practice no matter what. I thought about how a person's life is not valued based on its length. Rather, its value comes from its greater meaning. Even if a person only has a few days to live, if the light he emits can illuminate the entire universe and shine a light into the darkness, then it was a life worth living. In 2000, Yu was again arrested and taken to Chaoyang Gou labor camp. He was detained there for around a year. The sanitary conditions were very poor. So many of us were covered with scabies. One practitioner was beaten with wooden boards by non-practitioner inmates. He had all the scabies scars on his body targeted, so they would burst open. Then the guards let him grow new ones. They tortured him this way. They would pry off his toenails. By torturing you little by little, they hoped to make you come to the evil side and say bad things about Falun Dafa. Falun Dafa is another name for Falun Gong. Yu explained why he never gave up. If I for the sake of living comfortably gave way to them and said bad things about Falun Dafa, then wouldn't that make me the same as those creating the lies? If I gave in to their demands, I would no longer be able to look at myself in the mirror. I wouldn't be able to face what kind of person I would have become. I would rather choose death. After several attempts, Yu was finally able to leave China earlier this year. He arrived in the United States in March. Upon coming to America, I can now, in Chinese or English, tell my story to anyone who is interested. I'm no longer afraid of being taken away by police or of having my calls listened in on. I think that I'm very fortunate, but at the same time, I'm quite disheartened because I don't know how many of my fellow practitioners are currently being illegally incarcerated and tortured, and they could lose their lives at any point. Yu says he will continue sharing his story and working to expose the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong. Chenny Wu, NTD News. Other events also taking place across the country looking to bring awareness to the continued persecution of Falun Gong in China. Here are the details on a few of them and how lawmakers in Washington are showing their support. Tortured, beaten, imprisoned, killed, and ostracized. These and other abuses are some of what Falun Gong practitioners routinely suffer in China, and the Chinese Communist Party has largely covered them up for the past 23 years. The U.S. State Department stated Thursday that the persecution is unacceptable and must end. Also on Thursday, to commemorate the anniversary of the start of the persecution and raise awareness about it, Falun Gong practitioners from around the United States gathered at the nation's capital. Ahead of the rally in Washington, Senator John Bozeman commended them for their perseverance, saying, Your struggle for religious freedom has been nothing short of an inspiration to those around the world who respect freedom of religion. Rashad Hussain, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, took to Twitter to voice support for the millions undergoing persecution in China. He wrote, I stand in solidarity with the Falun Gong community. Thousands have been tortured, harassed, imprisoned, and forced to renounce their beliefs. This unjust campaign must end. Senator Ron Johnson similarly applauded those who practice Falun Gong for their continued persistence in the face of what he called the intensive, comprehensive, and unforgiving campaign the regime has waged on faith. Congressman Stephen Lynch wrote in a letter that the horrific reports of atrocities targeting Falun Gong practitioners in China are a reminder for the outside world to act, and that so long as the Chinese government engages in these egregious violations of basic human rights, we cannot and will not stand idly by. The continued campaign of torture has drawn growing condemnation toward the Chinese regime worldwide. And now to NBA free agent and human rights activist Ennis Freedom. He's been working to expose how the Chinese communist regime has influenced the North American Pro Basketball League. And this week, he appeared on the Tucker Carlson show and broke down what he believes is proof that Beijing is funding the NBA. And it is Dave Martin has more. Ennis Freedom has an insider's view of the NBA after playing 11 years in the league. He's criticized the NBA for supporting Black Lives Matter or remaining silent on human rights atrocities committed abroad by brutal regimes like the Chinese Communist Party. The 30-year-old who's also been outspoken with the shoes he's worn on the court that feature phrases like free Tibet, free China, and free the Uyghurs was released by the Houston Rockets in February. He's been unsigned ever since. His stance on China's human rights issues instead of his play on the court has been assumed to be the reason why, as Freedom's games were banned from being shown in China, a major business partner of the NBA. Wednesday night on Tucker Carlson, the show featured a recording of NBA Players Association lawyer Ron Klempner discussing what specifically was the problem. Also featured was a recording of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about the problem with Freedom's shoes. Freedom then came on the show and said, this is the evidence of how a 100% American-made company is run by the Chinese dictatorship. The 6-foot-11 free agent remains unsigned. The NBA's season starts on October 19th. Dave Martin, NTD News.