(Minghui.org) When the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) published its 2024 annual report on May 10, it listed several cases of suppression against Falun Gong in China and exposed the brutality.
U.S. Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ), CECC Chair.
“The Annual Report sets the standard in terms of documenting the People’s Republic of China’s failure to abide by human rights norms and in holding Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their repeated and sustained atrocities and crimes against humanity – up to and including that most pernicious of human rights violations, genocide,” said U.S. Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ), CECC Chair.
“The annual report will continue to guide Congress and the Administration on PRC policy,” he explained. “Above all, it is my hope that the long-suffering people in Communist China know through our report that they have not been forgotten, and that they, and we, can look forward to that day when oppression ends.”
US Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), CECC Co-chair.
“The people of China deserve to enjoy the full range of human rights to which they are entitled under international law. As the Congressional-Executive Commission on China documents in this report, the Chinese government continues to deny them their ability to exercise these rights,” added US Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), CECC Cochair.
The executive summary of the report stated, “[The CECC] has sought to highlight abuses by the CCP and PRC authorities on a range of subjects, including worsening persecution of religious minorities—including Muslims, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners...”
For example, Falun Gong practitioner and radio host Pang Xun died after authorities tortured him while in custody in December 2022. According to Minghui, Pang was a radio host of Sichuan Broadcasting Station. Because he practiced Falun Gong and told others about the persecution, he was arrested in July 2020 and sentenced to five years in prison. He was 30 years old when he died in Jiazhou Prison in Leshan City on December 2, 2022.
The CECC report also listed several instances in which Falun Gong practitioners were mistreated. Officials in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, detained Niu Xiaona and her elderly mother Tuo Wenxia in April 2021. Although the police released them separately afterward, officials detained Niu in March 2022 again.
Niu is disabled and this caused severe mobility problems. In September 2022, a railway court in Harbin sentenced her to a 15-year prison term.
The CECC also reported the persecution of Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Deyong.
“Dongying police detained Zhou Deyong, an oilfield engineer, at his home and seized Falun Gong materials reportedly belonging to his wife, a Falun Gong practitioner who lives in the United States. A Dongying court sentenced him in April 2023 to eight years in prison.
“U.S. officials, including Florida Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Sen. Marco Rubio, have advocated on his behalf and called for his release,” the report stated.
The CECC also made several recommendations. For example, “Congress should pass the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act (H.R. 1154 / S. 761) to impose sanctions and other penalties for anyone involved in human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal and expand annual reporting by the State Department on the practice in China and worldwide.”
In addition, the U.S. Administration should end operations of all PRC security agencies in the United States, including the Ministry of Public Security and subordinate branches, to prevent surveillance and intimidation of diaspora communities and intelligence gathering activities.
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