Testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus: The PRC's Anti-Human Rights Tactics in the United States (Part 1)

Testimony of Erping Zhang
Falun Gong spokesperson
The Falun Dafa Information Center
Before the US House of Representatives
June 11, 2002

Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of Congress, ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you for holding this important briefing. My name is Erping Zhang. I am a citizen of the United States, and have lived here since 1984. Over the years, I have come to appreciate this country more and more, especially because the United States Constitution is not for show, but a genuine inscription and prescription of the rights guaranteed to citizens of this great land.

I am here before you today as a practitioner of Falun Gong, which is a traditional Chinese meditation exercise founded on the universal principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. In a world in which all civil societies recognize that a good government needs to grant basic human rights and freedoms to its citizens, the Chinese regime, under Jiang Zemin, is undertaking a shameful and inhumane campaign against all those who practice Falun Gong in China. The brutality of this persecution is unparalleled in history. Not even the worst campaigns, including the Cultural Revolution, can compare to China's tortuous and terrorist machinations against the peaceful practitioners of Falun Gong in China.

But it is not the persecution of Falun Gong in China about which we speak today. The other panelists and I wish to call your attention to an even more insidious situation occurring here in the United States. Not only is the Chinese regime engaged in a pattern of encroaching upon our fundamental constitutional freedoms, it is also engaging in hate crimes against Falun Gong practitioners right here on US soil. In particular, they have abridged our rights under Title 18 247 of the United States Code, namely "Damage to religious property; obstruction of persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs."

My own experience is a case in point. I received two life-threatening phone calls in the year 2001. The first time, there was a message left on the voice mail of my cell phone repeating in a male voice, "I will kill you, I will kill you..." a few times in Chinese. I reported this incident to the police in New York City. I was threatened again in a later incident when I answered a phone call on my cell phone while driving. Another male voice said a few times in Chinese, "I will kill you, I want to kill you." I replied, "If you have the courage, let's have a talk." The anonymous caller hung up immediately.

According to a Radio Free Asia news report, numerous external reports have stated that China's State Security Bureau had contacted a Chinese gang in the United States in an attempt to assassinate Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, and his assistant. In the Chinese state-run media including The People's Daily, I have been criticized many times by the Chinese regime, and they have described me as Li Hongzhi's assistant. Radio Free Asia further reported that, according to the Hong Kong Center for Human Rights, on January 30, 2001 anti-Falun Gong offices in each region in China received orders over the phone directly from the Central Political and Judiciary Committee, emphasizing the need for a strengthened, strict, and quick attack on Falun Gong.

As a volunteer who speaks out for the rights of Falun Gong, these death threats have only further convinced me of the significance and necessity of seeking freedom of conscience, expression, and association for Falun Gong practitioners in China. Over the past three years, the tyrannical regime of Jiang Zemin has been continuing its pattern of hate crimes and its unlawful importation of state terrorist and criminal tactics against Falun Gong practitioners who are citizens of the United States. Chinese diplomats in the US have also been engaging in illegal conduct toward American local government officials who support Falun Gong. It is time China learned to respect the US Constitution and to honor its commitment to the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights.

With this briefing, we hope that this Congress will take concrete measures, such as legal action and deportation of certain unlawful Chinese diplomats, to put an end to China's evil harassment of US citizens. Chinese Embassy and Consular officials are guests in our country and should never be allowed to pose a threat to the safety of the American people. We must also let Chinese officials know in no uncertain terms that their attempts to intimidate and sway those local US government officials who support the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners in China constitute interference in our internal affairs and such actions will not be tolerated. In these uncertain times, I think we must all agree that it is important that we guard against such hostile and unlawful acts and ensure the safety of our people.

Thank you.

http://www.house.gov/lantos/caucus/briefs.htm