Falun Gong practitioners rallied opposite the Houses of Parliament to mark 10 years of persecution in China on Monday 20th July. Meditation exercises were demonstrated alongside a cage of people made-up to be bruised and battered, dramatising the detention and torture of the millions incarcerated without trial in Chinese labour camps.
Standing under the gaze of Winston Churchill’s statue in the sunshine, Members of Parliament and representatives of human rights organisations applauded Falun Gong practitioners for their courage in standing up to the Chinese Communist Party, describing them as heroes and champions of freedom.
Gerard Batten, UK Independence Party MEP for London, said: “Why are the Falun Gong being persecuted in China? The answer is very simple, it’s because of what they stand for. Their three core values of course are Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. These are the exact opposite of what the Chinese Communist Party stands for, which of course are lies, brutality and intolerance.”
“They cannot tolerate Falun Gong or any other group that proposes peaceful change or an alternative view on how life should be lived. Only the Communist view must prevail.”
Batten said that Chinese Communist Party has tried hard to crush the Chinese spirit since 1949 and before in the other territories that they control.
“The fact that they are the most brutal tyranny in the history of Communism may have something to do with why they still survive as long as they have. But you cannot crush the human spirit forever.”
“The Chinese Communist Party cannot survive forever,” he said. “The people who speak out against it like Falun Gong practitioners and other people are unbelievably brave.”
The persecution in China began exactly ten years ago on July 20th 1999, overnight turning the 100 million followers of the spiritual discipline into public enemy number one.
UK politicians from across the political spectrum called on the British government to take action to help end the persecution.
“It’s clearly completely unacceptable that over the last ten years you have suffered the persecution that you have in China,” said Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake. “I hope that as we’re demonstrating here, opposite the Houses of Parliament, that the UK government will be willing to take up those issues more forcible with the Chinese government than has been the case so far.”
“I hope you will get a positive response from the British government and they will express a willingness to pursue this agenda and pursue the agenda of Human Rights in China, something which is all too often forgotten.”
Organ Harvesting Revelations
Neville Farmer, PPC and Vice Chair Chinese Liberal Democrats called on the British government not to turn a blind eye to the practice in China of harvesting organs from a live bank of Falun Gong practitioners for profit.
“I want to plead with the Chinese Government to put an end to one of the most disgusting abuses of human life since the second world war, the practice of organ harvesting for profit.”
“And I want to plead with western governments to show a little courage and take some simple steps to ensure that we are not complicit in these abuses.”
Three years ago, a groundbreaking investigative report by two high-profile Canadian lawyers – David Matas and Davdi Kilgour – concluded that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China were being killed so their organs could be sold in lucrative transplant deals.
Farmer said the west could play its part through a ban on transplant tourism: “We are not innocent because we know that this is happening and we are not doing enough to stop it. I, for one, am amazed that our government turns a blind eye to this practise. Believe it or not, Israel is the only country so far to make it illegal for its citizens to seek transplants in China. Why not Britain? Are we scared that we’ll upset our business links with China? Is our moral fibre that weak? Surely the Chinese government isn’t going to take offence if we bring in a law against something it says doesn’t even happen? And if it does, should that stop us?”
“Come on Gordon Brown, Barack Obama, Nick Sarkozy, Angela Merkel! It wouldn’t take long to bring in a law like this. And if we all did it together, it would send a clear message to those who are involved in this sick industry that we object; that it’s not acceptable and that, most importantly, we know its happening and we want it stopped.”
Entitled ‘Bloody Harvest", the report on organ harvesting in 2005 concluded there is no known source of organs for some 41,500 transplants that took place in China from 2000 to 2005 besides the tens of thousands of detained Falun Gong practitioners. China’s number of transplants skyrocketed after the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999.
In another report by investigative journalist and adjunct fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Ethan Gutmann, there are similar figures put forward. In his research Mr Gutmann suggests that up to 162,000 Falun Gong practitioners may have had their organs harvested with 13,500 being the low-end estimate, and 87,750 being the median. He made a comparison to the figures presented in David Kilgour and David Matas’s report on organ harvesting stating, “It’s remarkable that the two methodologies are completely different yet the discrepancy is quite minimal.”
Tuidang campaign is most successful civil rights movement in China
Also joining the yellow-suited Falun Gong practitioners as they sat still in meditation in the morning sunshine in Parliament Square was Dr Yi Xu from the Federation of Saying Goodbye to the CCP. He spoke of his struggle for democracy in China and his inspirational speech told of his gratitude for the actions of Falun Gong.
He said: “In ten years I have not been able to persuade a single one of my friends to quit the party but Falun Gong’s Tuidang movement has seen 40,000 to 50,000 a day quitting.
” The Tuidang (literally meaning ‘quit the party’) movement is a campaign to help Chinese citizens quit and renounce the CCP. In these terms the CCP is defined not only as the main political party but also includes the Young Pioneers and the Communist Youth League. Using official CCP figures, the combined membership is approximately 263 million. Currently the figure of those who have quit through the Tuidang movement stands at 57 million.
The rally continued on into the night concluding with Falun Gong practitioners meditating in a candlelight vigil.
