Young Practitioners Participate in the 2023 International Religious Freedom Summit

(Minghui.org) Young practitioners from Students for Falun Gong (SFFG) and the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI) attended the 2023 International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, D.C., from January 31st to February 1st. 

Traveling from California, New York, and Maryland, the group consisted of students and young professionals in the fields of music, healthcare, technology, software development, and biotechnology. During the two-day conference, the SFFG and FDI members told attendees and government officials about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China.

Numerous summit speakers and human rights experts applauded practitioners’ resilience and courage, and condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for its ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa.

Young practitioners from Students for Falun Gong (SFFG) and Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI) participated in the 2023 International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in Washington, D.C., from January 31st to February 1st. 

Panel Discussion

Grace Chen was born in China and is now studying in the U.S. She was invited to represent Falun Dafa practitioners as part of a panel: “Campaign to Free Religious Prisoners of Conscience in China.” Both of Grace’s parents are imprisoned in China simply because they practice Falun Dafa.

Grace Chen reads a speech during the IRF Summit focused on releasing religious prisoners of conscience in China.

Grace talked her experience of living in China as a Falun Dafa practitioner. The group is persecuted by the CCP. After the suppression started in 1999, millions of practitioners were detained and tortured. Grace’s parents were also detained multiple times throughout her childhood. Her mother was once kidnapped by police while she walked the girl to kindergarten and she could not go home for weeks. Grace recounted how the CCP always spread defamatory propaganda against Falun Dafa in China. The slander is included in elementary school textbooks, and her principal and teachers were asked to give scripted speeches slandering Falun Dafa in front of the whole school. 

Grace Chen and her mother, Ms. Cao Zhimin, who is currently imprisoned in China for practicing Falun Dafa

Grace was able to leave China in 2019 to study music in New York, but her parents remained in China to work and support her education. In late 2020, both of her parents were detained during a mass arrest of Falun Dafa practitioners. For more than two years she has not been able to reach them or hear their voices. 

Panel discussion

After the speeches and Q&A session ended, an audience member specifically thanked the panel members including Grace for their courage. Moved to tears by Grace’s speech, she said she could not imagine how the communist China regime could be so ruthless to a 17-year-old girl. The audience member encouraged Chen to remain firm in her efforts to expose the CCP.

Support from Speakers and Summit Leaders

Throughout the conference several speakers talked about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China and praised practitioners for their effort.

In one panel session, Simon Zhang described how his mother (Ms. Ji Yunzhi) was sent to forced labor camps twice for her belief in Falun Dafa. She died at Bairin Left Banner Detention Center in March 22, 2022.

“In the 65 years of her life, the last 23 years were filled with surveillance, harassment, arrest, torture, and abuse,” explained Zhang in his speech. “All she did was to stay truthful to the principles of Falun Dafa: Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. She refused to give them up, even in the face of physical and mental torture by the communist regime.” A few days before the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Ms. Ji was arrested again on February 1, 2022. This time, she was unable to walk out and died of torture on March 21. 

Simon Zhang holds a photo of his mother, Ms. Ji Yunzhi, who was persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for practicing Falun Dafa.

After listening to Simon’s speech, Katrina Lantos Swett, former Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and Co-Chair of IRF Summit, commended Falun Dafa practitioners.

“For many, many years, I personally, and my family, the Lantos family, and the Lantos Foundation have been engaged with the Falun Gong community. And there, too, we see this remarkable response of dignity and forbearance and a greater capacity to forgive as they face unimaginable horrors,” she said.

Marco Respinti from Bitter Winter speaks during a discussion about the importance of international religious freedom education.

At a plenary session during the summit, Marco Respinti from Bitter Winter emphasized that journalists must be well-educated on all aspects of human rights and not only the most recent or most publicized persecuted groups. He said that journalists tend to focus on the most “popular” victim groups of human rights abuses, but there are still many lesser-known persecuted groups with thousands or millions of victims, including Falun Gong. These must be investigated and reported on as well. Mr. Respinti is the Editor-in-Chief of Bitter Winter, an online magazine about religious liberty and human rights in China and around the world.

Marco Respinti from Bitter Winter (center) came to the Falun Dafa booth. 

Mr. Respinti also stopped by the Falun Gong and the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI) booth in the exhibit hall. He said he was very familiar with the persecution of Falun Dafa in China and was interested in Falun Dafa Information Center’s most recent publication, The Persecution of Falun Gong: Key Trends from 2022 and What to Watch for Ahead. He also took a copy of the report.

Two representatives from USCIRF, Dylan Schexnaydre (left picture) and Kurt Werthmuller (right picture) talked with Grace Chen about her family: 

After the session, Dylan Schexnaydre, a researcher with USCIRF and Kurt Werthmuller, USCIRF Supervisory Policy Analyst spoke with Grace Chen and offered their condolences for her parents’ imprisonment. Schexnaydre took a copy of Falun Dafa Information Center’s most recent report on the persecution and said that his agency would continue to work closely with the Falun Dafa community. Werthmuller said that he’s been working with Falun Gong practitioners for a long time. He also spoke at a July 20th rally in Washington, D.C. in 2021, calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong which began in 1999. 

Learning About Falun Gong

At the joint booth of Students for Falun Gong SFFG) and Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI) in IRF Summit exhibit hall, materials about Falun Dafa and updates on the persecution in China were displayed. Many people stopped by to learn what Falun Dafa is, why the CCP persecutes the peaceful practice, and how they could help.

A young practitioner (right) clarifies the truth to a conference attendee.

Enes Kanter Freedom, a professional basketball player and human rights activist, stopped at the booth and talked with practitioners. Mr. Freedom has been very outspoken about China’s human rights abuses including forced organ harvesting crimes. 

“Falun Gong, I’m praying for all of you,” Enes said. The practitioners at the booth gave him a small lotus flower pendant with the words “Falun Dafa is Good” and “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” on it. Mr. Freedom thanked the practitioners and wished them success in their peaceful effort against the CCP. 

Enes Kanter Freedom talked with practitioners.

One woman stopped by the Falun Dafa booth and said that she had heard a little about the persecution. She was shocked to learn that the CCP has been persecuting practitioners for 24 years and asked if the U.S. government did anything to help stop it. Hearing that the U.S. government sanctioned CCP officials three times between 2020 and 2022 for gross human rights abuses against Falun Dafa, the woman said she hopes it works.

A young Burmese woman (left) speaks with a practitioner at the Falun Dafa booth.

A young Burmese activist stopped by the practitioners’ booth and said she was interested in SFFG and their work. She said that she was part of a Burmese association and was trying to encourage more people, especially the younger generation, to support human rights. She asked how SFFG motivates students and young professionals to participate and praised the young practitioners.

One event attendee talked with practitioners to learn what is going on in China. 

One man said he was very interested in learning the Falun Dafa exercises including meditation, and asked some questions. He was surprised to learn of the CCP’s brutal suppression and said he hopes the tragedies will end soon. He accepted a lotus flower pendant as well as one copy of each material on the table. He said he would read them in detail to learn more about the beautiful practice.

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. 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.