FALUN GONG IN CHINA: REVIEW AND UPDATE HEARING BEFORE THE CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION DECEMBER 18, 2012 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 78–599 PDF WASHINGTON : 2013 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS House Senate CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, SHERROD BROWN, Ohio, Cochairman Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana FRANK WOLF, Virginia CARL LEVIN, Michigan DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California EDWARD R. ROYCE, California JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon TIM WALZ, Minnesota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio JAMES RISCH, Idaho MICHAEL HONDA, California EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS SETH D. HARRIS, Department of Labor MARIA OTERO, Department of State FRANCISCO J. SA´ NCHEZ, Department of Commerce KURT M. CAMPBELL, Department of State NISHA DESAI BISWAL, U.S. Agency for International Development PAUL B. PROTIC, Staff Director LAWRENCE T. LIU, Deputy Staff Director (II) CO N T E N T S STATEMENTS Page Opening statement of Hon. Christopher Smith, a U.S. Representative from New Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ....... 1 Brown, Hon. Sherrod, a U.S. Senator from Ohio; Cochairman, Congressional- Executive Commission on China ........................................................................ 3 Chung, Bruce, Technology Manager in Hsinchu, Taiwan; Falun Gong Practi- tioner Arrested in China ..................................................................................... 5 Hu, Zhiming, Twice-Imprisoned Falun Gong Practitioner and Former People’s Liberation Army [PLA] Air Force Officer ........................................................... 7 Cook, Sarah, Senior Research Analyst, Freedom on the Net in East Asia, Freedom House ..................................................................................................... 8 Xu, M.D., Jianchao, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine; Medical Director, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting ......... 11 Lee, M.D., Charles, Spokesperson, Global Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party ................................................................................................. 22 Tong, James, Associate Professor, University of California-Los Angeles ........... 25 Ford, Caylan, Independent Scholar and Human Rights Consultant, Ottawa, Canada .................................................................................................................. 27 Xia, Yiyang, Senior Director of Policy and Research, Human Rights Founda- tion ........................................................................................................................ 30 APPENDIX PREPARED STATEMENTS Chung, Bruce ........................................................................................................... 42 Hu, Zhiming ............................................................................................................. 44 Cook, Sarah .............................................................................................................. 48 Xu, M.D., Jianchao .................................................................................................. 56 Lee, M.D., Charles ................................................................................................... 62 Tong, James ............................................................................................................. 99 Ford, Caylan ............................................................................................................. 106 Xia, Yiyang ............................................................................................................... 111 (III) FALUN GONG IN CHINA: REVIEW AND UPDATE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA, Washington, DC. The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 10 o’clock a.m., in room 418, Russell Senate Office Building, Representative Chris- topher Smith, Chairman, presiding. Also present: Senator Sherrod Brown, Cochairman. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CON- GRESSIONAL–EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA Chairman SMITH. The Commission will come to order. Good morning to all of you. In the early 1990s, the Chinese Government and the Communist Party welcomed the contributions of the Falun Gong spiritual movement: Its exercises and meditation had health benefits; its core teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance pro- moted morality in a society increasingly aware of a spiritual vacu- um. All that changed, however, in 1999, when several thousand Falun Gong practitioners peaceably assembled at Zhangnanhai Leadership Compound in Beijing. Chinese leaders were astonished that Falun Gong had grown so large and prominent outside of the Party’s control; so large that Falun Gong practitioners might out- number the Communist Party’s 60 million members. In the year afterward, the Chinese Government and the Com- munist Party began the campaign of persecution against Falun Gong that now has lasted more than 13 years. The persecution has been amply documented by the Department of State, the U.S. Com- mission on International Religious Freedom, Amnesty Inter- national, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and many other human rights non-governmental organizations [NGOs]. The campaign has been severe, brutal, ugly, and vicious. Many tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained and arrested. No one can count those sent to prison for long terms, and too many remain there. Many were sentenced to reeducation through labor, others just disappeared. Those released have told of long and brutal interrogations, beat- ings, sleep deprivation, and other forms of torture. Their captors demand statements and confessions. They demand that those in custody name other practitioners, better to roll up the movement. (1) 2 Rights movements have documented more than 3,000 deaths of practitioners from torture and mistreatment, and doubtless there have been many more who have died in custody, their stories yet untold. Parallel to the treatment of practitioners was a comprehensive propaganda campaign designed to demonize the movement. From their radios and televisions, Chinese learned Falun Gong was a ‘‘heretical cult organization.’’ The schools taught the same dictated talking points to the young and the impressionable. On September 12, Dana Rohrabacher of California and I co- chaired a joint hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and my subcommittee, the Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organiza- tions Subcommittee. We heard horrific testimony on the issue of organ harvesting in China. The witnesses touched on many issues: Transplants in Chinese medicine, transplant tourism, organ donors’ reliance on death row prisoners, and disturbing testimony that Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience may have been involuntary vic- tims. For those interested in reviewing the evidence in full, I would recommend the transcript of that hearing. One of our witnesses today, however, will review this issue. In addition to arrested practitioners’ imprisonment, sentences to reeducation through labor, and deaths, the Chinese Government and Communist Party have pressured Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief and practice. This ‘‘transformation’’ campaign has been documented by our Commission in its Annual Reports and by other human rights organizations. Amnesty International described the campaign as a ‘‘process through which individuals were pressured, often through mental and physical torture, to renounce their belief.’’ An extralegal Party-run security apparatus created in June 1999 to eliminate the Falun Gong movement, the 6–10 Offices, spear- headed the campaign. The Commission observed this past year offi- cial Web sites providing education and training materials for local officials who continue to support their effort to suppress the Falun Gong. The Chinese Government and Communist Party have also con- tinued to harass and detain persons who attempted to assist Falun Gong practitioners, including human rights lawyers such as Wei Liangyue, Wang Yonghang, and Gao Zhisheng. In the campaign against the Falun Gong, we see in high-relief so many features of governance in China. The Chinese people’s hopes are the ordinary hopes of mankind: To be free to work, to speak, to pray, to move, to enjoy healthy lives, to be free of poi- sonous pollution, to organize for better workplaces and better pay, and to find justice. What do they get? It is repression, unchecked police powers, pris- ons and labor camps, arbitrary courts, pressure against defense at- torneys, punishment of family members as well as individuals, con- trol of the media, blindness to the human cost of the Party’s poli- cies, indifference to life, and demonization of those who dare to dis- agree or speak out. 3 We see this in the repression of believers, be they Tibetan Bud- dhists, members of house churches, or Falun Gong practitioners. We see this in the rough and brutal resort to forced