Did China harvest organs of its own citizens?

Here's something else that is banned in China. Falun Gong, a religious movement that emphasizes on spiritual enlightenment and cultivation of virtue. But virtues and enlightenment you see do not exist in the Chinese Communist Party's dictionary. So it banned this religious movement in 1999. It drove its practitioners into exile. Why are we discussing this now? Because three days back on the 20th of July, Falun Gong practitioners marked the 21st anniversary of their exile from mainland China. 21 years of their persecution by the Chinese regime. And this time I'm happy to tell you that their voices are not going unheard. You see, most Falun Gong practitioners are settled in the United States. The movement has its headquarters in New York and the U.S. government is looking to revive their case to corner China. Leading the charge is U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He has said that Beijing, he has asked Beijing rather, to make public the whereabouts of missing Falun Gong practitioners. And he's asked them to release thousands of others incarcerated in Chinese prisons to this day. Our next report is a small attempt at making the world aware about the kind of atrocities this movement and its followers have been subjected to by the Chinese state. It is a religious movement. It believes in the cultivation of virtue. It emphasizes on spiritual enlightenment. And it's the biggest victim of China's doctrine of state atheism. This is the story of Falun Gong, of the dharma we practice. A system of mind and body cultivation under China's ancient Qigong tradition. It's a combination of Buddhist and Taoist teachings and believes in the cultivation of moral character through forbearance. Falun Gong was established by the famous Chinese spiritual leader Li Hongzhi in May 1992. His movement attracted tens of millions of urban Chinese citizens. It also gained significant popularity across the world. The growth of this movement coincided with the migration of students from mainland China to the west. Throughout the 1990s, Falun Gong clubs and associations began appearing in almost every part of Europe. But it was in 1999 when this movement became a subject of international media coverage. After months of tension between Falun Gong practitioners and the Communist Party, China declared it illegal. It said Falun Gong was advocating superstition. In the years that followed, the CCP launched a propaganda campaign to cast the movement as an evil cult. The state media published articles blaming the Falun Gong for hoodwinking people. Hundreds of thousands of practitioners were arrested and detained. They were incarcerated in labor camps. They were subjected to torture, arbitrary execution and organ harvesting. In 2006, a report by Canadian MP David Kilgore uncovered China's atrocities on Falun Gong practitioners. The report revealed a significant increase in China's annual organ transplant since 1999, the year when China began the crackdown. In 2016, another report was released. It estimated the volume of organs harvested to be around 100,000. As of today, Falun Gong does not exist in mainland China. Its practitioners are mostly based overseas, trying to draw the attention of the world to their plight. In September 2019, we on travel to New York to cover the UN General Assembly session. We carried a report on the annual protests that coincide with the UNGA outside its headquarters. Seated quietly among the protesters were Falun Gong practitioners. Images like these, people very quietly making their point. Persecuted for their beliefs, banished for their practices and robbed of their organs. Falun Gong practitioners are still fighting for legitimacy and waiting to return home. Bureau report, we on Worldist One.