Today, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), marked 27 years of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s systemic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

                “Twenty-seven years ago, the Chinese Communist Party launched its brutal campaign to eradicate the Falun Gong,” said Smith, who, in 1999, authored the first piece of U.S. legislation condemning the CCP’s abuse of Falun Gong practitioners.

                “Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, and subjected to forced organ harvesting—all because the Party could not tolerate a peaceful movement beyond its control.

                “In spite of immense pressure and intimidation from a powerful authoritarian regime, the resilient spirit of the Falun Gong has not been broken,” continued Smith, who has chaired over 100 congressional hearings on human rights abuses and religious freedom issues in China.

                “The persecution of the Falun Gong is not a closed chapter of history. It is an ongoing crime—and those responsible should know that they will face justice.

                “The United States must press for the release of every detained practitioner and sanction the CCP officials responsible for the atrocities committed against the Falun Gong,” he concluded.

###