2023 IRF Summit: Falun Gong Speakers - Levi Browde, Grace Chen, Simon Zhang

Falun Gong is a Buddhist-based spiritual practice involving meditation, slow-motion exercises and the study of Buddhist principles. It was very, very popular in the 1990s. In fact, the Chinese government did a survey, and in 1999 found that there were 70 to 100 million people practicing. And it wasn't just in one region, it was everywhere. It was on university campuses, farmers, housewives, military leaders, even family members of the Politburo. So they saw that many people, and in 1999 a few leaders decided that the entire spiritual practice had to be eradicated, and so that's what we've been dealing with for the last 23 years. Rampant imprisonment, torture, killing, and forced organ harvesting. So that leads me – there was really three challenges when it came to documenting. And I think the first challenge is the scope and geographic diversity. This was, again, people that were everywhere in China, and to try and document what was happening to them, the sheer volume and the diversity of location was difficult. That, as well as the fact that it wasn't just prisons and labor camps, the formal institutions where they hold people, black jails, what they call brainwashing centers. They'd even changed schools and Buddhist temples into prisons. And so it's very, very hard to get information in that way. The second challenge was the fact that following information is a state secret. So anybody who does get it out, you yourself put yourself in a lot of risk. In fact, there are people who were themselves imprisoned, tortured. Some died, not because they practiced Falun Gong, but because they reported on somebody who was imprisoned or was mistreated. And the third challenge we face is censorship. It's among the most censored topics and has been for two decades. So given those challenges, how would the documentation – how has that occurred? We have been able to document, and one of the primary ways we've done it is something called the Minghui website. And this is a website run by overseas human rights workers who are a lot of them from China, but they're connected with a very grassroots, decentralized group of people all around China. And every single day for more than two decades now, they get dozens of reports coming from inside China, firsthand accounts of what's happening. And that's been invaluable. Also, if you look in China, a lot of times you will not see persecution at the national or even the provincial level. But if you look at the local websites and local court verdicts, that's another place where we get documentation of what's been happening. And, of course, there's been some great NGO work. Freedom House has done some fantastic reports on Falun Gong. They've probably been the best over the last 10 years. And some investigative reports have been very good. Ian Johnson, almost two decades now ago, won the Pulitzer Prize for his series on Falun Gong. But the investigative report has also been a bit of a challenge because it is a third rail issue. And if you haven't read of Falun Gong on any papers in the last 10 years, well, there's a reason. And the CCP takes that very seriously. So that's sort of the landscape of the documentation on the tribunal side. So the China Tribunal was convened in 2018 in London by Sir Geoffrey Nice. And he's the prosecutor that some of you may have remembered, but Milosevic is the justice in the former Yugoslavia. And they convened a tribunal in London. And over the course of a year, they had over 50 witnesses come forth, looking at thousands and thousands of pages of documentation. And what they found were basically four things. One, that crimes against humanity, both against Falun Gong and Uyghurs, had occurred. Number two, forced organ harvesting had been going on and continues to go on, on a significant scale, and Falun Gong are indeed the primary targets. There was no evidence, despite what the CCP said, there was no evidence that they had dismantled the infrastructure that would be needed to carry out forced organ harvesting, and so it was continuing. And that, indeed, it wasn't just forced organ harvesting. They found a lot of evidence of torture, murder, and rape, and so forth. I think it's also important to note what the China Tribunal did in terms of uncovering the scale. They said there were 60,000 to 100,000 transplants per year. So if you look at just the Falun Gong community alone, over the 15 years or so we have of evidence of forced organ harvesting, hundreds of thousands would have died, would have been killed in this process. And so that was one of the... The China Tribunal was a significant and important documentation milestone of forced organ harvesting, not just against Falun Gong, but other groups. And I think other tribunals have since come about, like the Uyghur Tribunal in 2021, doing the same thing. Very, very important in terms of uncovering what's really going on inside China. Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Grace Chen, and I'm 17 years old. I was born in mainland China, and now I live in New York. You may have heard different things about China. I can share with you what it was like to live there as a practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice in the Buddhist tradition, currently persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party, CCP. My family practiced Falun Gong, along with millions of others in China. Before I was born, Falun Gong was very popular due to its health benefits and core principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. After it was introduced in 1992, parks in China used to be filled with people doing Falun Gong exercises and meditation every day. This changed in 1999, when the head of the CCP, Jiang Zemin, felt threatened by the independence and popularity of Falun Gong, and ordered the CCP to eradicate Falun Gong. After this persecution started, millions of practitioners saw China were kidnapped and tortured, including my mom and dad, many times. I remember one morning, when I was walking to kindergarten with my mom, several policemen suddenly appeared and grabbed us. I remember crying, No, I don't want to get in, as they forced us into a car. They pushed me out of the car at my school, but took my mom away. She did not come home for several weeks. When I was in primary and middle school, many people did not know what the heart of Falun Gong truly is. The CCP was always spreading lies, even putting anti-Falun Gong content in elementary school textbooks. One time, my principal called the entire school to the gym and gave a long speech in front of everyone, saying that people who practice Falun Gong are evil people, and many other terrible lies. As I sat there listening, my shoulders started to shake and trembled with fear and rage. It was obvious that my principal was reading off CCP propaganda, and he had never read a Falun Gong book or met any practitioners. But I felt so hopeless and didn't know how to help them realize the truth. I also remember our school bulletin boards often had posters with insulting cartoons of Buddhas and Falun Gong. My mom and I used to tear those down when we could, but someone would put new ones up. Most of my classmates or teachers did not know I was a Falun Gong practitioner, and I was always scared they would find out. One big reason was because I refused to wear the red scarf of the CCP. This scarf is a dress code for all Chinese students to wear to show that they are loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. If anyone did find out I practiced Falun Gong, I could be harassed, expelled from school, or worse, they could report my parents and put us in danger. I lived in fear every day until I left China, where I breathed my first fresh air of freedom. Three years ago, I came to America to chase my dream of studying music. I play the Erhu, which is like Chinese violin. I love the Erhu so much because it sounds so beautiful and touching. To support my dream, my parents stayed in China and continued to work. My first year alone in New York was lonely, but I called my parents often. So it felt like they were right next to me and not on the other side of the world. I remember the common questions my parents asked me were, Are you getting good grades? Did you practice your Erhu? I know this was their way to express I love you. Even though they cannot be there for my Erhu performance, my birthday or Chinese New Year like other families, I found comfort in the world, and I was glad they were healthy and safe. In the fall of 2020, my parents were arrested with eight other Falun Gong practitioners. I found out it was so sudden and shocking, but I wasn't that worried. I just called my mom and dad a few days ago, so I thought they would be okay and come again soon. One week passed, and I still had hope. Then two weeks, three weeks, four weeks went by. Every time I heard the phone ring, I hoped it was my mom and dad, but I never called. I felt so miserable. Every night I cried in bed. I became quiet at school. I bookmarked every single article about my parents' arrest on my laptop. I felt like now I was all alone in the world. I have not heard my mom and dad's voices for over two years. My teachers and classmates wrote lots of letters for them. Even though I know the letters may not reach them, I hope that the CCP police will know that Yang Chen and Zhiming Cao's doctor was waiting. If I could talk to my mom and dad right now, I would apologize. I want to say how sorry I am if my words can't reach my mom and dad. I will take a moment to say it now. Mama, I heard the police eavesdropped on your phone for one year. Did they find your location because I called you so often? I'm sorry for not being more careful. If I called you less, we'd still be safe at home now. I'm sorry for not taking care of you enough. Don't worry, my grades are improving. I'm also graduating this summer. I wish you could be there. I love you, Mama. Papa, I heard that before I was born, CCP police found out you practiced Falun Gong and beat you until your teeth fell out. Even after that, you never ever gave up your faith. You are my hero, Papa. But I hope this time you are not hurt. I'm sorry for not helping enough to save you from the sentence. I'll do my best to help you find freedom again. I hope we can be together soon. Today, although I am far away from persecution in China, however, I'm also close now to the persecution that I have ever been because my parents are in prison for Falun Gong. In China, several million Falun Gong practitioners have been tortured, arrested over the past 23 years, and over 4,900 have been killed by the CCP. But I know for sure there will be one day when China can be free and I can finally be together again with my mom and dad. Here to share a story of my mom, this is a photo of quite a lady. Unfortunately, she died in custody last March in China simply for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice in the Buddhist tradition. Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, she was sent to forced labor camps twice, first in 2001 and then in 2008, right before the Beijing Summer Olympics. In forced labor camps, she was tortured by police using electric batons for two hours until she had an involuntary urination and her face was burned. That torture destroyed her health, but the abuse did not stop there. Both times, we were only allowed to bring her home when she was about to die due to the severe torture and abuses. Last year in 2022, she was arrested again on the Chinese New Year, three days before the Beijing Winter Olympics. In a detention center, she went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary detention. The guards responded with torture, forced feeding, and humiliation. As a result, she lost consciousness and was sent to a hospital where she was handcuffed to bed for the last month of her life. They also placed iron feathers on her ankles. On March 21, 40 days after she was arrested, my mom died. My father demanded an explanation but was only met with indifference. Instead, nearly 50 policemen guarded my mom's body and monitored my parents' apartment. On April 7, my mom was cremated. My father was forced to give permission. After the police threatened, they would fire my cousin, who is my father's close nephew, from his government job. They also threatened him, my father, using photos of me joining Falun Gong events in the United States, telling him that they know everything about what's happening here. My mom had one strong wish to see for herself how we can practice Falun Gong freely in the United States. A few years ago, she planned to visit me here, but her passport application was denied because she practiced Falun Gong. Now she will never have that chance. In the 65 years of her life, the last 23 years were filled with surveillance, harassment, arrest, torture, and abuses. My entire family also suffered for 23 years because of this. All she did was to stay faithful to the principles of Falun Gong, truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. She refused to give them up, even in the face of physical and mental torture by the communist regime. My family is only one of the millions of families torn apart by this persecution, and in my own experience, I have seen so many of my close friends and close fellow practitioners. Their families were torn apart in front of my eyes. My mom is just one of over 4,900 documented cases of Falun Gong practitioners who died due to torture and abuses. Another untold number of Falun Gong practitioners, likely hundreds of thousands, have been killed through forced organ harvesting. This is a much, much bigger crime than China's human rights issue. What the Chinese communist regime has done to Falun Gong, including my mom, is a genocide and is a crime against humanity. Thank you very much.