Global Grassroots Movement Honors US Rep. Rohrabacher

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) addresses a rally of 5,000 Falun Gong practitioners and calls for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China, in Washington on June 20, 2018. (Edward Dai/Epoch Times)

WASHINGTON—Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) received an appreciation award on Dec. 4 honoring his years of support for one of the world’s largest grassroots movements—Tuidang, the global campaign for quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Yi Rong, president of the Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party, presented the award plaque to Rohrabacher in Washington.

As part of the movement, millions of people inside and outside China have submitted their resignations from the CCP to the global Tuidang center. As of Dec. 6, more than 321 million Chinese people have published their declarations to quit the Party and its affiliated organizations on the Tuidang website.

“On behalf of our global volunteers, I’d like to express our sincere thanks to Mr. Dana Rohrabacher, who introduced the House Resolution 932, and express our thanks to Congress for showing solidarity with the Tuidang movement,” Yi said.

On June 8, Rohrabacher introduced House Resolution 932 in Congress. The resolution expresses “solidarity with the Tuidang Movement whereby Chinese citizens renounce their ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates” and calls for an “immediate end to the campaign to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.”

The Tuidang movement is a grassroots response to the CCP’s ruthless 19-year campaign to eradicate Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa—a traditional spiritual practice that combines tranquil exercises with a way of life based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

Rohrabacher said that from his lifelong experience of fighting for freedom, he knew that people who are struggling for freedom throughout the world are America’s greatest allies for peace and prosperity.

“I should be giving this award to you,” he said. “I would say the Falun Gong and the Tuidang movement have been such a great inspiration to me over the years.”

Referring to China’s ruling communist regime as the world’s most “repressive” and “corrupt,” Rohrabacher said: “They are villains in the world. They are villains for the planet. And those villains threaten all of us with their power and authority.”

Rohrabacher said the iron grip of the CCP puts all of us in jeopardy, and could lead to war. However, the Chinese people, in engaging with the peaceful Tuidang movement that has led to the withdrawal of one-third of the CCP’s membership, may help prevent open conflicts.

“The people of China are our greatest ally, in trying to make sure that the villainous regime doesn’t go to war, physical war, with the people of the United States,” Rohrabacher said.

“You are the ones who gave me hope, to realize that there are people in China, and everywhere, that we can ally ourselves with.”

In June 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution demanding an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, condemning the practice of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China—including practitioners of Falun Gong and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups—and calling for an investigation of China’s unethical organ transplant industry.

Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.