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In the fall of 1999, with the first reports of deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in China just surfacing, the United States Congress passed what would be the first of four resolutions condemning the persecution of Falun Gong. Three other resolutions followed, including one expressing concern over attacks and harassment of Falun Gong adherents and their supporters by Chinese agents within the territory of the United States. During floor debates and annual rallies held in Washington D.C., Members of Congress have reiterated their opposition to the Chinese Communist Party’s policy of banning Falun Gong and particularly, at the brutal methods used to force Chinese citizens to renounce their peaceful spiritual beliefs. U.S. Congress Congressional Resolutions House Resolution 343 (June 13, 2016)185 cosponsors; passed the House unanimously"Expressing concern regarding persistent and credible reports of systematic, state-sanctioned organ harvesting from non-consenting prisoners of conscience in the People's Republic of China, including from large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups."House Resolution 605 (March 16, 2010)81 cosponsors; passed the House nearly unanimously (412-1)"Recognizing the continued persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China on the 11th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party campaign to suppress the Falun Gong spiritual movement and calling for an immediate end to the campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison, and torture Falun Gong practitioners."House Concurrent Resolution 304 (October 4, 2004)75 cosponsors; passed the House unanimously"Expressing the sense of Congress regarding oppression by the Government of the People's Republic of China of Falun Gong in the United States and in China."House Concurrent Resolution 188 (July 24, 2002)100 cosponsors; passed the House unanimously"Expressing the sense of Congress that the Government of the People's Republic of China should cease its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners."House Concurrent Resolution 218 (November 18, 1999)72 cosponsors; passed the House unanimously"Expressing the sense of the Congress that the Government of the People's Republic of China should stop its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners." Speeches at Falun Gong Rallies https://www.youtube.com/watch?vqkShFWQ5xho Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) speaks at Capitol Hill to support Falun Gong https://www.youtube.com/watch?vGRGYpZcRmqI Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) speaks at Capitol Hill to support Falun Gong https://vimeo.com/434870879 Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) speaks at Capitol Hill to support Falun Gong https://www.youtube.com/watch?vALONGEuax4o Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) speaks at Capitol Hill to support Falun Gong https://www.youtube.com/watch?vCBffN2Lhb8g Congressman Sam Farr (D-CA) speaks at Capitol Hill to support Falun Gong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v-T3knsOkJQQ Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) speaks at Capitol Hill to support Falun Gong Floor Debate (C-SPAN) Statements Members of U.S. Congress Urge State Department to Release Information on Organ Harvesting in China U.S. State Department Annual Human Rights Reports U.S. State Department 2019 Human Rights Report: China (2019)"There was no direct evidence of an involuntary or prisoner-based organ transplant system. Nevertheless, some activists and organizations continued to accuse the government of involuntarily harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, especially members of Falun Gong. The PRC government denied the claims, stating it had officially ended the long-standing practice of harvesting the organs of executed prisoners for use in transplants in 2015. One Australian National University study of PRC official statistics of organ donations said there was “highly compelling evidence” based on statistical forensics that the data was “falsified.” Furthermore, the research paper argued that the government’s organ transplant program involved donations from “nonvoluntary donors who are marked down as ‘citizen donors.’” In June the nongovernmental Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting of Prisoners of Conscience in China released a report which found “direct and indirect evidence of forced organ harvesting” in China, citing “extraordinarily short waiting times” and “massive infrastructure development of facilities and medical personnel for organ transplant operations."U.S. State Department 2018 Human Rights Report: China (2018)"There were reports that authorities subjected individuals to death, forced disappearances, and organ harvesting in prison because of their religious beliefs or affiliation.…Minghui reported that on July 4, authorities arrested and detained Ma Guilan from Hebei Province for talking to people about Falun Gong. On September 17, authorities said Ma suddenly fell ill and they took her to the hospital where she died hours later. According to the report, several officials came to the hospital and removed Ma’s organs for examination, although it was unclear what happened to those organs.The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese authorities have subjected prisoners of conscience including Falun Gong, Uighurs, Tibetan Buddhists, and “underground” Christians to forcible organ extraction. Former prisoners stated that while in detention, authorities subjected them to blood tests and unusual medical examinations that were then added to a database, enabling on-demand organ transplants. On December 10, an independent tribunal established by the international NGO International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China issued an interim judgement that the panel was “certain – unanimously, and sure beyond reasonable doubt – that in China, forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time, involving a very substantial number of victims.”…The Political Prisoner Database (PPDB) maintained by human rights NGO Dui Hua Foundation contained the following number of imprisoned religious practitioners at year’s end: 310 Protestants, 205 Church of Almighty God members, 136 Muslims, 22 Buddhists, and nine Catholics, compared with 308 Protestants, 277 Church of Almighty God members, 107 Muslims, 30 Buddhists, and nine Catholics at the end of 2017. According to Dui Hua, these numbers are based on Dui Hua’s classification system for inclusion in the PPDB and are not the total number of religious prisoners. The number of Muslim prisoners did not include 505 Uighur and 234 Kazakh prisoners, which Dui Hua classified as “ethnic prisoners.” According to Dui Hua, these figures did not account for Muslims in “vocational skill education training centers.” The PPDB listed 3,486 Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned at year’s end, compared with 3,516 at the end of 2017. Dui Hua defined imprisoned religious practitioners as “people persecuted for holding religious beliefs that are not officially sanctioned.”Falun Gong reported that during the year authorities arrested or harassed approximately 9,000 citizens for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. According to Minghui, authorities arrested 4,848 Falun Gong practitioners and harassed an additional 4,127. Of those arrested, 2,414 remained in detention at year’s end." U.S. State Department 2017 Human Rights Report: China (2017)"Practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement reported systematic torture more often than other groups."…Officials continued to hold “anticult” education sessions and propaganda campaigns affecting schoolchildren and their families. Some officials required families to sign statements guaranteeing they would not take part in unregistered churches and “cult organization” activities related to Falun Gong as a prerequisite for registering their children for school.…Authorities instructed neighborhood communities to report Falun Gong members to officials and offered monetary rewards to citizens who informed on Falun Gong practitioners.…Prison authorities reportedly subjected detained Falun Gong practitioners to various methods of physical and psychological coercion, such as sleep deprivation, in attempts to force them to renounce their beliefs."U.S. State Department 2015 Human Rights Report: China (2015)"According to a report published by Ming Hui, in Guangdong Province authorities “persecuted, intimidated, kidnapped, disappeared, sentenced, or sent to reeducation-through-labor camps” 91 Falun Gong practitioners in the first half of the year. Of these, 24 Falun Gong members were prosecuted and seven sentenced to terms of imprisonment from one to four years, according to the report. The report stated many lawyers defending Falun Gong members were forbidden from meeting with their clients, faced harassment by police or officials from the justice department, and were threatened with revocation of their professional licenses unless they withdrew to allow for replacement by a court-appointed lawyer. Lawyers were unable to exercise normal legal functions in all Falun Gong-related court trials, such as by presenting defense statements or evidence or witnesses, according to reports by Ming Hui and legal advocates. Some lawyers were expelled by the judge on-site and ejected from the court by police."U.S. State Department 2011 Human Rights Report: China (2011)"Overseas and domestic media and advocacy groups continued to report instances of organ harvesting, particularly from Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs....According to China News Weekly, the country had 22 “ankang” institutions (high-security psychiatric hospitals for the criminally insane) directly administered by the Ministry of Public Security. Unregistered religious believers and Falun Gong adherents were among those reported to be held with mentally ill patients in these institutions."U.S. State Department 2009 Human Rights Report: China (2009)"Some foreign observers estimated that Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in RTL camps, while Falun Gong sources overseas placed the number even higher."U.S. State Department 2007 Human Rights Report: China (2007)"In March 2006 UN Special Rapporteur Nowak reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in government custody. Since the crackdown on Falun Gong began in 1999, estimates of the number of Falun Gong adherents who died in custody due to torture, abuse, and neglect ranged from several hundred to a few thousand." International Religious Freedom Reports U.S. State Department 2019 International Religious Freedom (2019)"The CCP maintains an extralegal, party-run security apparatus to eliminate the Falun Gong movement and other such organizations....In June an independent tribunal established by the international NGO International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China issued its final judgment that “forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been one – and probably the main – source of organ supply.” The tribunal presented its finding to the United Nations in September." U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Coming soon...

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