Ms. Liu Zhitong holds a photo of her mother. The board reads, “Immediately release my mother Kong Qingping.” (Minghui.org)
Dear Reader,
Since our last update, two young women in the United States received devasting news about their family members in China, with one’s mother given a harsh sentence and the other’s father detained.
In other news:
Two more U.S. states passed legislation targeting complicity in forced organ harvesting
A Falun Gong practitioner testified to the Canadian government about transnational repression in Canada
A new short documentary addresses the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) global transnational repression campaign against Falun Gong practitioners
Join us on April 25 for a webinar marking the 25th anniversary of a peaceful appeal in Beijing by Falun Gong practitioners. The webinar will feature a torture survivor who was there on that historic day as well as experts on human rights in China, discussing both the event and the current state of religious dissent in China. For a detailed investigation on the incident, see our “Have you read this?” section below.
Sincerely,
Levi Browde, Executive Director Falun Dafa Information Center
Ms. Liu Zhitong holds a photo of her mother. The board reads, “Immediately release my mother Kong Qingping.” (Minghui.org
What’s new?
The Falun Dafa Information Center learned after months of silence that Ms. Kong Qingping, the mother of a California resident, was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined 30,000 yuan (4,140 USD) on November 10, 2023, and that her appeal to the sentence was rejected on March 25, 2024.
Ms. Kong was detained at her home on October 22, 2022, and police confiscated Falun Gong spiritual texts, but further information about what Falun Gong-related activities she is being punished for remains unclear. It was previously only known that the Ganjingzi District Court in Dalian city, Liaoning Province tried Ms. Kong in a virtual hearing for the second time on September 22, 2023, and that no verdict had been reached. She was being held in the Yaojia Detention Center (where she remains) and awaited a third trial.
Why does it matter?
Unfortunately, the number of family rescue cases tracked by the Falun Dafa Information Center is growing. Family members who practice Falun Gong in China are being detained and sentenced faster than they are being released. What’s more, these cases are likely representative of a larger number of cases that have not been reported to the Information Center.
What else do you need to know?
U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on September 29, 2023 requesting the Secretary to “ask Ambassador Nicholas Burns to raise this case directly with his PRC counterparts and call for Ms. Kong’s immediate unconditional release.”
Ms. Lee also called for action to combat the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners more broadly. “It is well documented that Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained and subjected to other human rights abuses,” wrote Congresswoman Lee. “These actions by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have garnered widespread condemnation from the global community. This case, among others, underscores the importance of raising awareness and unequivocally opposing such transgressions against human rights.”
Mr. Han Wei, the father of Ms. Han Guangzi, a U.S. citizen and student in New York, was arrested on March 29 in Heilongjiang Province. Chinese police reportedly tracked down Mr. Han through facial recognition cameras after he sent text messages raising awareness about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. This latest arrest marks the fifth time the Chinese government has wrongfully detained Mr. Han. Recognizing the risks Mr. Han faced by staying in China, he was granted refugee status by the United States in 2015. But when he attempted to flee China, he was stopped at the airport.
Utah and Idaho joined Texas in passing legislation to combat forced organ harvesting in China. The two new laws prevent insurance companies from covering organ transplants in China or any other country known to participate in forced organ harvesting. Both bills passed unanimously in each states’ Houses and Senates. The Utah legislation was signed into law on March 14 and goes into effect on May 1, and the Idaho legislation was signed into law on April 10 and goes into effect on July 1.
Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission heard testimony from diaspora communities facing repression in Canada by authoritarian regimes. Among those who testified was Grace Dai Wollensak, a representative of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada. She described the Chinese regime’s attempts to silence and intimidate members of the Falun Gong community in Canada through assault, surveillance, harassment, disinformation, and political infiltration.
In this piece published in the National Review in 2009 and authored by investigative reporter Ethan Gutmann, he details what really happened during Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful appeal on April 25, 1999. He explains how Western media and scholars not only failed to describe this event accurately but also embraced the Chinese regime’s framing of the appeal as a siege of the Chinese government compound and as Falun Gong’s “original sin” that prompted the brutal persecution months later.
“So as we think about the anniversary of Falun Gong’s suppression, we must acknowledge that the Western response has given the Chinese Communists a free hand,” says Gutmann. “And the failure starts with the Western media’s acceptance of the party’s interpretation of April 25, 1999.”
Secret Chinese police stations, paid influencers on social media, targeted cyberattacks, diaspora surveillance, and physical violence. For more than 20 years, the Chinese regime has targeted Falun Gong in the United States and around the world in an illicit and increasingly sophisticated campaign to malign and silence. Produced by the Falun Dafa Information Center, The Long Arm of Beijing is a 20-minute documentary that sheds light on this alarming campaign.
