(Minghui.org) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution against Falun Gong in July 1999. “For these harrowing 23 years you have never wavered. To the contrary, you have persevered with conviction and certainty,” wrote Alex Neve, former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada in a recent letter. “You have continued to practice Falun Gong and you have continued to speak out about human rights, as you are doing today. You show us all what true courage entails.”

Neve, currently a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, wrote the letter to the Canadian Falun Dafa Association on July 20, 2022. On that day, practitioners in Ottawa gathered peacefully in front of the Chinese Embassy, calling for an end to the brutal persecution against Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa). 

Falun Dafa practitioners gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa on July 20, 2022. 

Determination and Courage

During his tenure as the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, Neve participated in practitioners’ events at Capitol Hill and the Chinese Embassy numerous times, urging the Canadian government to take action against human rights violations in China. 

“While I cannot be with you in person today, I share this message of solidarity and support as you mark a grim and distressing anniversary, 23 years since the Chinese government launched its devastating human rights crackdown throughout the country against practitioners of Falun Gong,” he wrote.

The nationwide suppression against Falun Gong in China has brought huge pain to practitioners and their families. “I have been truly humbled by your determination and your resolute courage. For the human rights violations experienced by Falun Gong practitioners have been unrelentingly repressive, including staggering levels of arbitrary arrest, unjust imprisonment, unfair trials, torture and deaths in custody,” Mr. Neve wrote. “You have been clear and principled in drawing attention to human rights violations that far too often the rest of the world has ignored, as governments have been reluctant to exert real pressure on China to relent from this campaign of cruelty.”

As the CCP wantonly arrested practitioners, tortured them in detention, and caused deaths, the damage goes beyond China. “Over those harrowing years I have frequently had the honour to stand with practitioners here in Canada and, in particular, to stand with the loved ones of Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have been arrested, detained and tortured in China, some of whom still remain unjustly imprisoned at this time,” said Mr. Neve. “They remind us all that no matter what, we can never give up on human rights.” 

Member of Parliament: The Best Part of Chinese Civilization

Scott Reid, Member of Parliament (MP) and former chairman of the subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, previously helped rescue practitioners detained in China. In his letter for the July 20 event, MP Reid noted that the persecution has unfortunately lasted over 20 years. 

“Falun Gong, and its millions of practitioners have consistently and faithfully advocated the finest and most eternal features of Chinese culture, which are summarized under the threefold rubric of Truth, Compassion and Forbearance,” wrote MP Reid. “It never fails to amaze me that year after year, the government of the People’s Republic of China fails to see what a remarkable job the practitioners of Falun Dafa have done, in bringing the best of Chinese culture and Chinese values, to the attention of the entire world.”

Death of Family Members

According to information received by Minghui, over 4,800 Falun Gong practitioners have lost their lives since 1999 as a result of abuse that occurred during police custody. The persecution is carried out across almost all regions of China. 

Jean, a practitioner who now lives in Ottawa, talked about the experience of her cousin Han Yu from Liaozhong County. Han’s severe bronchitis disappeared after he began to practice Falun Gong. Besides the physical benefits of the practice, his temper also improved and the family was happy. 

To help counter the slander spread by the CCP against Falun Gong, Han distributed informational materials to local residents. This led to his arrest around 9:30 p.m. on June 13, 2011.

With help from overseas practitioners and Canadian government officials, Han was released. But Li Wei, head of the county Domestic Security Bureau, and other officials often came to harass him. In the end, Han was forced to stay away from home to avoid further persecution. As a result of his arrest, detention, torture, and constant harassment, Mr. Han died before he was 50 years old. 

Han Qing, another of Jean’s cousins, is also a Falun Gong practitioner. Like Han Yu, she talked with neighbors about Falun Gong and wrote letters to the 610 Office to refute the CCP’s propaganda. The Liaozhong Court sentenced her to a three-and-a-half-year term in 2017. 

The physical and mental benefits of Falun Gong were well known in China before the CCP launched the suppression in July 1999. “Because of the persecution, many people lost the chance to improve their minds and bodies. Even practitioners who clarify the facts were wrongly persecuted. This is a tragedy for China,” Jean said. She pointed out that at least 12 family members of Canadian citizens are still detained in China for their belief in Falun Gong. 

Recognizing What the CCP Is

Li Xun, president of the Canadian Falun Dafa Association, said, “The persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP is one of the worst human rights violations in modern history. Forced organ harvesting, for example, has been called an unprecedented evil on this planet. Starting from early 2000, this crime alone is estimated to have caused 60,000 to 100,000 deaths of Falun Gong practitioners each year.” 

According to the UN Human Rights Commission, twelve UN human rights experts announced in June 2021 that they were extremely alarmed by reports of organ harvesting that targets minorities, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians, in detention in China.

Liu Zhiyuan, a student at Carleton University, said his father is detained at an unknown location. 

Liu Zhiyuan, who attends Carleton University in Ottawa, said that his parents, Liu Zhoubo and Cao Wen, both suffered tremendously during the persecution. Both of them graduated from Northeast Petroleum University in 1992. Liu Zhoubo is an expert on oil fracking technology while his wife works on a petroleum development project. 

After hearing about Falun Gong 1995, the couple began to practice along with their parents. “They regained their health and the family also became happier than ever,” Liu Zhiyuan recalled. 

Not long after the suppression started, Liu Zhoubo, Cao Wen, as well as Cao Wen’s parents and brother, were all sent to a detention center in Tangshan City in Heibei Province in 2000, where they were kept for 18 months and subjected to brainwashing. 

Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, Liu Zhoubo was sentenced to a nine-year prison term. “During those years, he did not have enough food or clothing. He did not have hot water to take a shower either. In addition, the guards threatened him with forced organ harvesting,” Liu Zhiyuan said. “My father knows that Falun Gong is good and he follows the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance regardless of how he is abused.”

According to information from Minghui, Liu Zhiyuan’s parents were arrested again on November 19, 2021, and their home was ransacked. His mother was released about 40 days later. His father was transferred from the Beijing No. 3 Detention Center to an unknown location.

“My father could face trial, but we do not know where he is. Officials are also monitoring my mother closely,” Liu Zhiyuan said. “That is why we need help.”

Li Eying, a sales manager for pharmaceutical products in China, has been harassed and monitored by officials over the past 20 years, even while she was pregnant or was delivering a baby. 

After Ms. Li was arrested and taken to the Binhu Police Station in Jiangsu Province in October 2014, the police took blood samples from her and linked the sample ID with her record. She noticed that the police had detailed records of every practitioner, even information on their distant relatives. 

Even after Ms. Li left China in 2019, officials threatened her family in Hunan Province, forcing them to give them her overseas contact information. 

“From my own experience and stories of other practitioners that I know, Falun Gong is indeed righteous,” Li explained. “No matter how rampant the CCP is, practitioners will not waver in their faith.”

“The persecution has gone on for 23 years and it did not stop during pandemic,” said Li Xun. “Despite the CCP’s brutality and lies, however, practitioners know from their hearts what Falun Gong is and will not give up their belief. 

“As time goes on, more and more people in China and around the world have recognized the true nature of the CCP. Therefore, rejecting the CCP is not only important for Chinese citizens, but also for people from other nations.”

Background: What Is Falun Dafa and Why Is the CCP Persecuting It?

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) was first introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. The spiritual discipline is now practiced in over 100 countries and regions worldwide. Millions of people who have embraced the teachings, which are based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, and have learned the five exercises, have experienced improved health and well-being.

Jiang Zemin, former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), perceived the spiritual discipline’s growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s atheistic ideology and on July 20, 1999, he issued an order to eradicate the practice.

Under Jiang’s personal direction, the CCP established the 610 Office, an extralegal security organization with the power to override the police and judicial systems and whose sole function is to carry out the persecution of Falun Dafa.

Minghui.org has confirmed the deaths of thousands of practitioners as a result of the persecution over the past 23 years, though due to the difficulty in getting information out of China, the actual number is believed to be much higher. Countless practitioners have been imprisoned and tortured for their faith.

There is concrete evidence that the CCP sanctions the harvesting of organs from detained practitioners, who are murdered to supply China’s organ transplant industry.