Son’s Advocacy Sparks International Support, New Organ Harvesting Legislation in Australia

Dear Reader,

Government officials, public figures, and human rights organizations across Europe have shown tremendous support for Falun Gong in recent months. Much of this results from the efforts of Ding Lebin, a German resident who has spent the past year campaigning for the release of his father who is imprisoned in China for practicing Falun Gong. Ding has actively been speaking to government officials in Europe, at public events, and to Rotary Club members.

Other stories in today’s newsletter include:

• The Australian Senate has passed a bill intended to confront forced organ harvesting.

• The Buddhist Association of China (BAC) is collaborating with the CCP to coerce Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith.

• A woman who has been sentenced for the second time recounted prior to her latest arrest how her life has been turned upside down during the persecution.

Lastly, NTDTV’s “China in Focus” provides updates on the Ping Li, a former Verizon employee in Florida who pleaded guilty on August 23 to acting as an unregistered agent of the CCP. Since at least 2012, Li had provided Chinese Ministry of State Security officials with various kinds of information, including about Falun Gong practitioners in the United States.

FEATURE STORY

MEP Michael Gahler (L) and Ding Lebin (R) after the debate on the European Parliament’s resolution of January 18, 2024 condemning the persecution of Falun Gong in China. (Courtesy of Ding Lebin)

What’s new?

Ding Lebin, a resident in Berlin, human rights advocate, and freelance China researcher has been campaigning for the release of his father, Ding Yuande, from a Chinese prison. The elder Ding was arrested for his practice of Falun Gong in May 2023 and subsequently sentenced to three years in a politicized trial. Ding Lebin’s efforts have sparked an increase in global awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong, and has prompted a European Union (EU) resolution adopted in January 2024 that called for the release of his father as well to investigate and punish CCP perpetrators involved in the persecution of Falun Gong.

Why does it matter?

Ding Lebin’s advocacy campaign to free his father has demonstrated how support from government officials, human rights organizations, and everyday citizens can catalyze action. Following the European Parliament’s resolution adopted early this year which condemned the persecution of Falun Gong and the sentencing of Ding Yuande, international support for Falun Gong has gained momentum. During the EU and China’s 39th joint Human Rights Dialogue in June, EU officials issued a statement calling for the end of China’s human rights abuses, specifically demanding the release of Ding Yuande and another Falun Gong practitioner who published photos revealing the situation in Beijing during the pandemic, Xu Na.

What else do you need to know?

Ding Yuande’s case is one of over a dozen cases being tracked by the Falun Dafa Information Center of individuals detained in China who have family members abroad pleading for their release. For example, 19-year-old Grace Chen has been calling for the release of her parents since their detention in October 2020. Information about Grace’s parents has been tightly suppressed. They were sentenced to prison terms of unknown lengths in December 2021 and the locations of their detentions were unknown until November 2022.

GOVERNMENT ACTION

The Australian Senate passed a new bill on August 21, 2024, that aims to fight the illegal organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting from living people, including Falun Gong practitioners in China. The Migration Amendment (Overseas Organ Transplant Disclosure and Other Measures) Bill 2024 dictates that anyone who has received an organ transplant overseas in the last five years will be asked upon arriving in Australia to disclose the location they received the transplant and the name of the medical facility where the operation took place. This information will then be compiled in an annual report presented to Australia’s parliament.

Senator Dean Smith, who introduced the legislation, said that “This is the most significant step made in decades in emboldening Australia’s efforts to combat the growing trade in illegal and unethical organ harvesting and trafficking, the information will be of great assistance to human rights organizations, medical institutions, and the Australian Government in analyzing data on trends in overseas transplants, and helping to corroborate existing evidence of organ trafficking or harvesting activities abroad.”

The bill’s passage in the Senate was made possible thanks to support from Liberal, National, Green, and independent senators and will now move to Australia’s House of Representatives.

PERSECUTION IN CHINA

A September 2 article in the religious freedom magazine Bitter Winter reported that “deprogramming” Falun Gong practitioners—coercive and psychologically manipulative measures to force believers to renounce their faith—is now being subcontracted to government affiliated Buddhist clergy, while remaining under the strict supervision of the police.

The article describes a recent propaganda video published by the China Anti-Xie-Jiao Association in which an abbott and leader of the Buddhist Association of China (BAC) effectively “deprograms” a Falun Gong practitioner. The effort occurs in a Buddhist temple and the supposedly former practitioner is presented as then becoming friendly with the police officer who arrested him.

From the very beginning of the persecution of Falun Gong, a key goal of the regime has been to force detained practitioners to renounce their faith. Such “deprogramming”—also referred to as “transformation”—regularly features heavy psychological indoctrination and torture. For years, there have been reports that Buddhist associations were being used in this process.

In 2018, the BAC was brought directly under the CCP’s United Front Work Department. A May 2024 report from the International Campaign for Tibet details how the organization has also been increasingly involved in the attempted “Sinicization” of Tibetan Buddhism.

PERSECUTION IN CHINA

Sun Shuhua, a 58-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Ji County, Tianjin Municipality, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison by local officials on July 19, 2024, and extorted a fine of 10,000 yuan (approx. 1,410 USD).

After the CCP began its persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Sun Shuhua was harassed, kidnapped, illegally detained, and sent to labor camps. She was brutally tortured mentally and physically in a labor camp. Sun Shuhua’s first-hand account, written prior to her latest arrest, details how the CCP’s persecution turned her life upside down.

In this September 2022 oped, Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute, and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, former chair of the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, highlight the urgent need for the United States to address forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. They call out American complicity with the practice through university affiliations with China as well as the fact that American institutions are documented to have trained hundreds of China’s current transplant doctors.

An episode of NTD’s “China in Focus,” reports that on August 23, 2024, a Florida engineer named Ping Li pleaded guilty to collaborating with CCP officials in gathering intelligence on U.S. non-profits, private companies, and Falun Gong practitioners.

Since at least 2012, Li was tasked with gathering information regarding Falun Gong practitioners at the direction of officers of the PRC’s Ministry of State Security. For example, in 2014 Li provided an MSS officer with personal information about a Falun Gong practitioner in California who protested in front of the Chinese consulate, including the home address, phone number, and make and model of the practitioner’s car.

The case is the latest in a series of prosecutions that highlight Beijing’s long-arm reach against its targets of interest, such as Falun Gong. The regime has attempted to eradicate Falun Gong from China and elsewhere around the world over the past 25 years, using torture, propaganda, detention, and forced organ harvesting.