2024 US Human Rights Report Condemns CCP’s Persecution of Falun Gong

CECC Co-chair Senator Jeff Merkley said, “The Chinese government’s assault on human dignity not only affects people in China but also increasingly those around the world, including the United States.”

“The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has reported on these human rights abuses across borders and inspired legislation such as my Transnational Repression Policy Act. Once again, the Commission has issued a quality product that documents the poor state of human rights and the rule of law in China. When the Chinese government refuses to recognize the aspirations for freedom and dignity of its own people, we are duty-bound to speak out on their behalf. I hope Congress and the incoming Trump Administration will act on the CECC’s recommendations for action.”

 

CCP’s Crimes of Forced Organ Removal from Falun Gong Practitioners

“During this reporting year, PRC authorities continued to monitor, detain, and imprison Falun Gong practitioners. In March 2024, the Commission held a hearing in which witnesses expressed concerns about possible forced organ removal from religious and ethnic minorities in China, including Falun Gong practitioners,” the report stated.

Organ harvesting was the subject of a CECC hearing during the reporting period. The hearing examined claims that Falun Gong adherents were early targets of this heinous practice.

PRC authorities continued to monitor, detain, and imprison Falun Gong adherents in connection with their practice of Falun Gong. Authorities often detain Falun Gong practitioners for violating Article 300 of the PRC Criminal Law, under the bogus charge of “organising and using a cult to undermine implementation of the law.”

The report also mentioned, of the 2,764 records of prisoners known or believed to bedetained, 497 were Falun Gong practitioners.

 

Report Lists Cases of Falun Gong Practitioners Being Persecuted

The Falun Gong-affiliated website Minghui reported the deaths of dozens of Falun Gong practitioners due to mistreatment while in custody and more than a thousand cases of Falun Gong practitioners being harassed or sentenced by authorities. Falun Gong practitioners are often detained multiple times over the course of years, including the following individuals:

Hou Lijun: In May 2023, the Wanbailin District People’s Court in Taiyuan municipality, Shanxi Province, sentenced Hou Lijun to 10 years in prison. In June 2023, authorities sent Hou to a prison in Jinzhong municipality, Shanxi Province and reportedly tortured him by beating him, forcing him to sit on a small stool for long periods of time, and depriving him of sleep and basic necessities. Hou went on a hunger strike in protest and in January 2024, authorities transferred Hou to a Taiyuan PSB hospital after he became gravely ill. The prison administration denied his family permission to visit him at the hospital.

Lang Dongyue: On December 14, 2021, police took into custody Falun Gong practitioner Lang Dongyue in Huailai County, Zhangjiakou Municipality, Hebei Province. Police initially detained her in a police station and later transferred her to the Zhangjiakou PSB Detention Center in early 2021.

Around July 2023, the Xuanhua District People’s Court in Zhangjiakou Municipality, Hebei Province, sentenced Lang Dongyue to nine years in prison and imposed a fine of 15,000 yuan (US$2,100) after authorities had detained her at least five previous times for an aggregate total of 10 years starting in 1999.

Wang Yanming: After multiple previous detentions, public security officials in Daqing Municipality, Heilongjiang Province, detained Wang Yanming in June 2023, claiming that surveillance cameras recorded him hanging up Falun Gong posters, and he was subsequently sentenced on September 25, 2023, to three years and six months in prison and fined 20,000 yuan (US$2,900).

 

Black Jails

According to the report, the informal term “black jail” refers to buildings such as hotels and training centers that government officials or their agents use to detain people. These extralegal detention facilities operate under different names, including “assistance and service centres” or “legal education centres.” Their existence and use have no legal basis, and people detained in such sites—many of whom are petitioners and Falun Gong practitioners—do not know when they will be released and do not have any procedural protection.

 

Torture and Abuse

In observing International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the United Nations reiterated the principle that “Torture is a crime under international law. According to all relevant instruments, it is absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances.”

However, reports indicate that the practice of torture and abuse of detainees continued in China, a violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which China is a signatory.

Examples are as follows:

Multiple reports of the torture and abuse of Falun Gong practitioners emerged this past year including the case of Li Lizhuang, who was serving a 10 year and 8 month prison term at the Hulan Prison in Harbin municipality, Heilongjiang Province, when he was abused.

Prison officials, sometimes using other inmates as proxies, reportedly beat Li, pepper sprayed and electrocuted his face and sensitive areas, deprived him of sleep, and forced him to wear a straitjacket.

 

Litigating Cisco’s Role in the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners

A federal court ruling issued in July 2023 held that California-based technology company Cisco Systems could be held liable for “aiding and abetting” human rights abuses that took place in China using its technology.

In a case dating to May 2011, one American citizen and 13 Chinese citizens who are adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court against Cisco and its leadership for aiding and abetting or conspiring with Chinese officials, in violation of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), the Torture Victim Prevention Act, and other federal and state laws.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that an American company could be sued under the ATS, although it reaffirmed a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit’s claims against Cisco executives under the ATS.

Digital rights organisation Electronic Frontier Foundation hailed the court’s opinion that legitimate uses of a company’s technology do not immunise it from liability from uses that lead to human rights abuses.