PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Several dozen Falun Gong practitioners from the Greater Philadelphia area held a rally in Philadelphia’s Chinatown on July 15 to call for an end to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 24-year persecution of Falun Gong, a meditation practice in the Buddhist tradition that is centered on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.
People from different backgrounds came to speak up against the persecution, including those who had been tortured in China.
Lichun Shen had been illegally imprisoned by the CCP for a total of nearly 11 years, just because she practices Falun Gong in China.
“From 1999 to 2017, I was kidnapped 9 times because of my faith. All of this was because I believed in truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, and I wanted to be a good person,” Ms. Shen spoke at the rally.
She described how the prison forced prisoners to work overtime and overloaded every day.
“Often, we got up at 4:00–5:00 a.m. in the morning and worked until 12:00 at night, went to bed at 2:00 a.m., and were called up again at 4:00–5:00 a.m. Those who failed to complete the task were beaten and electrocuted with electric batons,” she said.
“Every day, thousands of sets of finished clothes or thousands of shirts or pants are made and shipped out. There are no days off here.
“The CCP’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong is so horrible. In 2017, I left my hometown and came to the United States. A place where one can enjoy the freedom of belief.”
Professor: Everybody Has to Come Out to End the Persecution
Mark Thomas, chair of the department of political science at La Salle University, spoke at the rally against the 24-year-long persecution: “The threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party to Falun Gong is a threat to world peace.”
“We often speak of Ukraine being in the vanguard against Russian aggression in Europe. The Falun Gong is in the vanguard against Chinese communist aggression worldwide. We must unite with them, wipe away our complacency and stand as ‘one for all; and all for one’ against Chinese oppression. We must do it for them and we must do it for us,” Dr. Thomas said.
“A friend of mine, who was in the East [communist] German military once told me that the Party could see his body but it could not see his soul. The soul lives outside the reach of government and that is what the Chinese Communist Party fears the most.”
“Today we stand against the oppression, organ-harvesting, torture, and imprisonment inflicted by the Chinese Communist government on a peaceful, democracy-loving people.”
Dr. Thomas told The Epoch Times: “Our biggest enemy right now is hatred … Hatred is what brings the causes of the Communist Party to do what it does: hatred of freedom, hatred of people that stand against them.”
Dr. Thomas called on everyone to come out to end the persecution of Falun Gong in China because “persecution of any people is a problem for everybody.”
Politician: Chinese Communist Party Must Stop All Evil Practices
Aaron Bashir, a candidate for Philadelphia City Controller, is also a survivor, an educator, entrepreneur, community activist, and a father of three children who is passionate to serve others, came to the rally to call to stop the Chinese Communist Party’s evil doing.
“I speak up against the evil that’s happening right now in this world. The word of God says: ‘Know the truth and the truth shall set you free,’” Mr. Bashir shouted to the crowd.
“The truth is, right now, in this 21st century, people are getting killed, they’re being tortured, and their organs are being stolen by the Chinese Communist Party—the dictatorship, the so-called government of the people—is abusing, torturing people. It is inhuman, it’s evil, it’s dark, what they are doing to innocent people.”
He asked all the human rights organizations and Congress to support the Falun Gong Protection Act (H.R. 4132), to save innocent human beings that are being regularly tortured and getting killed.
“My eyes go in tears for the families, for the individuals, for the communities who are suffering, because human beings are not for sale. They are not for slavery. They are not there for getting killed. And especially when you go to a hospital for your treatment, and they steal your organs and sell them on the black market. Chinese Communist Party must stop all these evil practices.”
Mr. Bashir urges people “to raise their concerns and to speak up against the Chinese Communist Party who have been not only torturing his own people, but they have been spreading this evil ideology globally.”
Writer: Organ Harvesting Is Morally Corrupt
Many passengers stopped by and listened to the speeches, including one author, Kevin D. Young, who wrote the book “The Harvest” about illegal organ transplants.
Mr. Young told The Epoch Times that he was shocked to learn that forced organ harvesting is a big issue not just in small nations, but also in China now.
“Illegal organ harvesting is morally corrupt,” he said. “What I was surprised that and I’m learning now is that illegal organ harvesting has always been an issue. And I had absolutely no idea that it was as prevalent in China. And that is what is kind of stopped me in my tracks.”
Mr. Young said Falun Gong practitioners’ rally to expose the persecution including forced organ harvesting is “exceptionally important” because it involves life-threatening issues. “We really need to think in terms of what’s happening around the world. The planet is a lot smaller than we thought it was.”
Doctor: Forced Organ Harvesting is an Evil Never Seen Before
“Forced Organ Harvesting has been referred to as an evil never seen before on this planet,” Jessica Russo, a member of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH.org) spoke at the rally. “The story of the persecution of Falun Gong in China is one of good and evil. Forced organ harvesting is the worst form of this persecution, as it is a form of mass murder.”
Dr. Russo continued: “What is forced organ harvesting? It is the forcible removal of organs, including vital organs (hearts, lungs, cornea, etc) from prisoners of conscience, primarily Falun Gong practitioners but there are also victims as well; House Christians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs, the Muslim minority in China. This is a crime performed by hospitals throughout China, initiated by and overseen by the Chinese government.”
In the end, Dr. Russo calls for everyone: “You can make a difference here. Tell your Rep. to cosponsor [the] Falun Gong Protection Act.”
The Falun Gong Protection Act was introduced in June 2023 by Rep. Perry, Scott (R-Pa.) and aims to end forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China and protect the international medical community from unwittingly supporting this transplantation crime.
Launched on July 20, 1999, the CCP’s campaign to eliminate Falun Gong remains one of the largest human rights crises in China today. When this persecution first began, 70–100 million people from all walks of life practiced Falun Gong in China. Since then, millions of them have been detained or imprisoned. An untold number of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed through forced organ harvesting, according to testimony from the China Tribunal to the United Nations.
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