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International Campaign Seeks the Release of Persecuted Falun Gong Adherent in China

Falun Gong Adherents Stand Up for Human Rights Outside UN General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly convened on Sept. 19 in New York, where protesters at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza called on heads of state to condemn the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ...
09-20-2023
About Falun Gong
What Is Falun Gong Persecution in China Why Persecution? Statistics, Evidence, & Sources Forced Organ Harvesting Civil Disobedience
what's Falun Dafa

What Is Falun Gong

Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice rooted in traditional values that emphasizes self-improvement through the study of teachings, as well as gentle exercises and meditation, according to the practice’s website. The teachings emphasize adhering to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and encourage learners to let go of unhealthy habits (or attachments), such as desiring fame, being prideful, and ignoring the welfare of others.

The practice was introduced to the public in 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, in China's northeastern Jilin Province. Within six years, Chinese state sources reported that 70 million to 100 million people were practicing. Today, millions continue to practice Falun Gong in more than 100 countries, including in China, where the ruling communist regime brutally persecutes adherents for their faith.

Violent Persecution

In 1999, a few leaders in the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a systematic campaign to “eradicate” the spiritual practice, after witnessing its widespread popularity. This campaign aimed to violently suppress the tens of millions of people who practiced Falun Gong.

For more than 20 years, millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been subject to police harassment, abduction, imprisonment, torture, and death in custody. Furthermore, untold numbers have been killed and their organs extracted to fuel a booming, multibillion-dollar organ transplant industry in China.

Meanwhile, the CCP’s vilifying propaganda has been carried over by some media in the West.

Despite the persecution, an estimated 20 million to 40 million practitioners continue to engage in peaceful civil disobedience throughout China.

Why Does the CCP Persecute Falun Gong?

Four key factors are:

1. In 1998, an official regime survey found that 70 million to 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong. This meant that the spiritual practice saw more popularity than the CCP, which had approximately 60 million members at the time, a fact that some CCP leaders saw as threatening.

2. Falun Gong has no formal membership and no houses of worship, and is loosely organized. Consequently, the practice became the largest group outside of the regime’s control.

3. Falun Gong’s spiritual teachings were perceived by some CCP leaders as a threat to the communist culture of atheism, materialism, and struggle.

4. Ultimately, the decision to persecute Falun Gong boiled down to the personal motivations of then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin. Despite opposition from other Party leaders, Jiang orchestrated the campaign to eliminate Falun Gong and assert his power over the Party and the country.

Key Statistics

What is the scale of the persecution of Falun Gong today? Drawing from first-hand accounts, victim testimonies, documentation by independent human rights organizations, research by investigative journalists, leaked government documents, and whistleblower interviews, the scope of the CCP’s campaign against Falun Gong is clear.

Amid a persecution targeting 70 million to 100 million Chinese people, at least several million have been detained. At least hundreds of thousands have been tortured. More than 4,900 have been confirmed to have been killed via torture or sustained abuse in detention, and sources estimate that hundreds of thousands have been killed through forced organ harvesting.

Meanwhile, Falun Gong practitioners continue their efforts to resist the persecution and expose the truth to their neighbors and communities. Today, an estimated 20 million to 40 million practitioners are actively engaged in exposing the CCP’s human rights abuses, constituting the largest civil disobedience movement in the world today.

Forced Organ Harvesting

A growing body of evidence shows that Chinese hospitals have colluded with the CCP to forcibly remove the organs of prisoners of conscience, killing them in the process. The main source of these organs is practitioners of Falun Gong.

Prisoners of conscience are regularly screened for their blood and tissue types, then killed on demand when a matching patient needs an organ transplant. This lucrative state-run business is estimated to be worth at least $1 billion annually.

Deeper analyses of China’s organ donation system, the profiling of detained prisoners and their disappearances, and the accounts of prison guards and Chinese doctors who witnessed the removal of organs from unwilling, living people have painted a picture of this heinous crime.

In 2019, the China Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal to investigate these allegations, unanimously concluded that “forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale.”

Civil Disobedience

For two decades, a grassroots movement consisting of tens of millions of people across China has peacefully challenged the hate and violence perpetuated by the Chinese Communist Party.

These individuals produce leaflets exposing the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, as well as its historical crimes, and distribute them—often under cover of night—to communities throughout China in an effort to inform their fellow citizens, who would otherwise only have access to the propaganda produce by state-run media. They also report abuses inside China to overseas volunteers and organize petitions.

These combined efforts constitute the largest civil disobedience movement in the world today.

What Is Falun Gong
Violent Persecution
Why Does the CCP Persecute Falun Gong?
Key Statistics
Forced Organ Harvesting
Civil Disobedience
Videos
2023

Falun Gong: In Their Own Words

It’s an early Sunday morning at Veterans Park in Otisville, upstate New York, a time of year when the trees are still green, but the mornings start to have a ...
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Legends Unfolding: On the Thirteenth of May

This is Manhattan, New York. Since 1999, many Falun Dafa practitioners and supporters from around the world gather annually to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day…
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Inside a CCP Scheme to Bribe an IRS Official to Target Falun Gong, DOJ Charges Two: Levi Browde | ATL:NOW

Two suspected Chinese agents were recently charged for attempting to bribe a public official with tens of thousands of dollars in a scheme targeting the persecuted faith group Falun Gong ...
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Legends Unfolding: Kung Fu – Seeking the Tao

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Medical Genocide: Hidden Mass Murder in China’s Organ Transplant Industry | Documentary

China now performs the most organ transplants in the world, yet has few voluntary donors. While the regime has admitted to harvesting organs from death row prisoners, they account for ...
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Legends Unfolding: The Memory of the Red Wall

Sunday, April 25, 1999, was a beautiful spring day in Beijing. The catkins danced in the breeze. However, this was no ordinary spring day. On this day, over 10,000 Chinese ...
2022

The Persecution of Falun Gong (Why is Falun Gong Persecuted in China?)

During the 1990s, Falun Gong was widely recognized as uplifting public health and morality through its teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. So why did the Chinese Communist Party launch ...
2022

What is Falun Gong (Falun Dafa)?

Falun Gong is an ancient Chinese spiritual discipline in the Buddhist tradition. Pronounced “Fah-loon Gong,” it consists of moral teachings, a sitting meditation, and four gentle exercises that are a ...
Viewpoints
Gregory CopleyJul 20, 2023

The Shame of the Silence of the West

Commentary There is a strategic price that the West will pay—and is paying already—for its failure to take a moral stand against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for its policy ...
James GorrieJul 19, 2023

The CCP’s Genocide Against Falun Gong Rages On

Commentary In a summer marked by the war ravaging Ukraine, rampant inflation, heat waves, and other global disruptions, one additional dismal human milestone must be acknowledged in all its horrific ...
Kevin AndrewsMay 22, 2023

A Prayer for the Victims of the CCP

Commentary Many people ask: what can they possibly do to assist the persecuted in China? It is not easy. Other nations, let alone ordinary citizens, often seem to have little ...
Ethan GutmannMay 12, 2023

The Long Road to Confronting China’s War on Religion, Part III

Seeking out Uyghur refugees—with legal status or otherwise—I traveled to Central Asia and Turkey.
Susan CrabtreeMay 10, 2023

The Long Road to Confronting China’s War on Religion, Part II

News Analysis Falun Gong emerged in China in 1992, a time of a spiritual renewal in a land still under communist rule, but one recovering from the horrors of Mao ...
Carl M. CannonMay 8, 2023

The Long Road to Confronting China’s War on Religion, Part I

News analysis In 2016, when Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered a speech calling for the “Sinicization of religion” in a nation of one billion, he was espousing a century-old impulse ...
Susan CrabtreeMay 4, 2023

Religious Freedom Commission Calls Out Violations in Iran, China, Elsewhere

Commentary It’s an image of contrasts, courage, and confrontation: A faceless Iranian woman protester holds Catholic rosary beads against the backdrop of a poster featuring Mahsa Amini, a young woman ...
Anders CorrApr 25, 2023

The CCP Harms Itself With the Persecution of Falun Gong

Commentary On April 25, Falun Gong practitioners mark the 24th anniversary of their peaceful protest against repression in China. On that day in 1999, approximately 10,000 practitioners of the spiritual ...