Support Falun Gong

I’m writing to say a big thank you to Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton for co-sponsoring Senate Resolution 274, “expressing solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners who have lost lives, freedoms, and other rights for adhering to their beliefs and practices, and condemning the practice of non-consenting organ harvesting, and for other purposes.”

I am from China and my parents and I practice Falun Gong, which is a meditation practice for mind and body based on the three principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.

Initially the practice was embraced by the Chinese government for its health benefits, but after a survey concluded that there were as many as 100 million people practicing, the Communist Party enacted a policy of persecution beginning in July 1999.

We soon started hearing news of people we knew being arrested and tortured. My mother was arrested in 2000 with no official charges or legal procedure. In prison she was tortured when she refused to sign papers to denounce and slander Falun Gong. She was eventually released after going on a hunger strike, but many of her friends were less fortunate and didn’t survive the persecution.

Because people like my mother are not allowed to seek legal justice in China, it is critical that those outside China continuously and strongly protest the persecution and killing. Efforts by U.S. officials to expose human-rights abuses are therefore equally important and appreciated.

As persecution survivors, we sincerely thank Senators Boozman and Cotton for their effort on Resolution 274. Efforts like this will build greater global awareness of the Communist regime’s human-rights violations and encourage more to speak up against organ harvesting and persecution. Increased awareness and strong voices for justice will bring these crimes against humanity to an end. PINGPING YU Bentonville