The CCP increased its repression of Falun gong in 2023: CECC

The Congressional Executive Commission on China, or CECC, has released its 2023 Annual Human Rights Report, assessing the human rights situation in China over the past year. According to Da Ji Yuan, the report indicates that over the past year, the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, has increased its repression of Falun Gong and other religious groups in China. The report cited the case of Falun Gong practitioner Pang Xun, 30 years old, who was tortured Pang was arrested in December 2022. Then in February 2023, a friend of Pang shared on X, a video about Pang's process from his arrest until his death. According to the video, Pang was arrested for sharing materials about Falun Gong, and was sentenced to five years in prison. According to Ming Hui, Pang's body showed signs of being electrocuted, bound, and physically assaulted. Ming Hui noted that in 2023, there is more information about the 209 Falun Gong practitioners who died in the CCP's ongoing 25-year persecution of Falun Gong. The CECC report also mentioned cases of Falun Gong practitioners receiving long prison sentences. For example, Niu Xiaona, a disabled person, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. CECC recorded the conditions of 2,615 detained prisoners of conscience, of whom 460 were Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that gained popularity in 1992. It guides its practitioners according to the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. However, because Falun Gong grew rapidly in just a few years, with the number of practitioners exceeding the number of CCP members, in July 1999, then-General Secretary of the CCP, Jiang Zemin, in a jealous rage, ordered the suppression of Falun Gong throughout China. The persecution has continued to this day.