WHILE THE WEB OF LIES AND MIND CONTROL WROUGHT BY THE CCP in China and abroad continues, we recently marked a sobering anniversary of one of the CCP’s most devious lies — the macabre propaganda event that transformed Falun Gong from a respected household name across China into public enemy #1. A new interactive website explores this incredible and tragic story.
Also in this newsletter are notable annual reports: the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s report documents continued persecution of people who practice Falun Gong in China. The Minghui website released figures for 2020 of those targeted for their faith, and the UK’s Conservative Party Human Rights Report also documented continued persecution of Falun Gong.
Lastly, award-winning producer and author Kay Rubacek hosts a new video breaking down the core details of forced organ harvesting in China, including an intriguing revelation about its connection with the global pandemic.
Sincerely,
Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center
The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) released its 2020 Annual Human Rights Report on January 14, 2021.
The report states that the CCP continued to detain Falun Gong practitioners and subject them to harsh treatment. At least 774 practitioners were sentenced in 2019. (Due to government suppression, the true number of practitioners may be significantly higher.)
The CECC report also cited another report by the U.S. Department of State that said the CCP employs an ‘‘extralegal, party-run security apparatus to eliminate Falun Gong’’ and other groups.
It also highlighted incidents of violations of religious freedom against practitioners documented by the Minghui website, including detention and arrest, beatings, sleep deprivation, and other forms of torture.
On January 23, 2001, five people set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square in an apparent “protest” of the regime’s mistreatment of Falun Gong. It was swiftly broadcast on state media and used to vilify those who practice Falun Gong in the eyes of Chinese people. Immediately, practitioners around the world knew the people who did this could not possibly represent Falun Gong, as Falun Gong’s teachings expressly forbid suicide. Numerous inconsistencies appeared in the footage and surrounding those involved, enough to lead a reporter at The Washington Post to investigate and publish “Human Fire Ignites Chinese Mystery.”
One Canadian filmmaker explores the event from the point of view of a former Chinese state TV insider (Ask No Questions, Lofty Sky Pictures, 2020) who believes it was a government plot to justify the eradication campaign of Falun Gong.
“Smokescreen” is the in-depth web experience behind the film that puts users on the front line of the action so they can investigate and decide for themselves what happened.
According to information collected by Minghui, 6,659 practitioners were arrested and 8,576 were harassed in 2020. While the number of arrests remained similar to that of 6,109 the year before, 2020 saw a 2.4-fold increase in harassment cases compared to that of 3,582 in 2019. Due to safety concerns and the repressive nature of life in China, many more cases of harassment and arrest are highly likely, but unable to reach international desks.
Among the total 15,235 practitioners that were targeted in 2020, 3,588 had their homes ransacked and 537 were taken to brainwashing centers.
There were also 622 practitioners sentenced to prison for their faith (some of whom were part of the 6,659 arrested in 2020) and another 83 persecuted to death in 2020, both of which have been covered in detail in separate reports.
Ruth Ingram of the magazine Bitter Winter breaks down a new analysis of China’s worsening human rights situation. The 2020 report is the latest by the UK’s Conservative Party since 2016’s “The Darkest Moment.”
“The latest revelations in “The Darkness Deepens” are grim,” Ingram says. “Its conclusions are supported by notable worthies, human rights defenders, dissidents, and exiles who are unanimous that China’s human rights record has not only “gone backwards” but has created a “virtual gulag” within its borders.” The CCP’s negative influence on global freedoms and silencing of concerned voices is rising incrementally, like a pernicious tide, the report goes on to say.
But the ultimate question remains: will the Conservative Party take decisive steps to stop China’s abuse of human rights? If not, who will?
For more than a decade, the Chinese Communist Party has been systematically killing innocent people on a large scale, and extracting their vital organs to fuel a multi-billion dollar organ transplant industry.
Both the United States Congress and European Parliament passed resolutions condemning this horrible crime. Israel, Spain, Italy and Taiwan all passed laws aimed at preventing their citizens from any involvement with China’s forced organ harvesting.
In a 2020 interview, human rights attorney David Matas shared a striking observation connecting forced organ harvesting with the coronavirus pandemic…
From ancient roots extending back thousands of years, to a house-hold name in China during the Qigong boom in the 1990s, to the largest group of prisoners of conscience in the world, this is the complete story of Falun Gong…
