[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 13, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S4561]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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 SENATE RESOLUTION 232--RECOGNIZING THE CONTINUED PERSECUTION OF FALUN 
GONG PRACTITIONERS IN CHINA ON THE 12TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CAMPAIGN BY 
   THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY TO SUPPRESS THE FALUN GONG MOVEMENT, 
  RECOGNIZING THE TUIDANG MOVEMENT WHEREBY CHINESE CITIZENS RENOUNCE 
   THEIR TIES TO THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY AND ITS AFFILIATES, AND 
 CALLING FOR AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE CAMPAIGN TO PERSECUTE FALUN GONG 
                             PRACTITIONERS

  Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. Coburn) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 232

       Whereas Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is a Chinese 
     spiritual discipline founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992 that 
     consists of spiritual and moral teachings, meditation, and 
     exercise based upon the universal principles of truthfulness, 
     compassion, and forbearance;
       Whereas, during the mid-1990s, Falun Gong acquired a large 
     and diverse following, with as many as 70,000,000 
     practitioners at its peak;
       Whereas, on April 25, 1999, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 
     Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Beijing to protest 
     growing restrictions by the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China on the activities of Falun Gong 
     practitioners, and the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China responded with an intensive, comprehensive, and 
     unforgiving campaign against the movement that began on July 
     20, 1999, with the outlawing of Falun Gong;
       Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China 
     has stated that it fully respects and protects citizen's 
     freedom of religion in accordance with the law, but that 
     ``Falun Gong is neither a religion nor a spiritual movement; 
     rather it is an evil cult against humanity, science and 
     society'';
       Whereas, on October 30, 1999, China's National People's 
     Congress promulgated an ``anti-cult'' law (article 300 of the 
     Criminal Law), effective retroactively, to suppress the Falun 
     Gong movement and thousands of religious sects across the 
     country;
       Whereas, since 1999, more than 6,000 Falun Gong 
     practitioners have reportedly served time in prison, with 
     estimates of those in reeducation through labor camps 
     reaching as many as 125,000 people, and Falun Gong 
     practitioners are said to constitute approximately two-thirds 
     of all prisoners and detainees of conscience in China 
     (roughly 15,000 people);
       Whereas the publication of ``Nine Commentaries on the 
     Communist Party'' in November 2004 by the United States-based 
     newspaper, the Epoch Times, led to the creation of the 
     Tuidang movement;
       Whereas the Tuidang movement, which translates literally as 
     ``withdraw from the communist party'', has encouraged as many 
     as 90,000,000 people to publicly renounce their membership in 
     the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates since 2004;
       Whereas, in the lead up to and during the 2010 World Expo 
     in Shanghai, authorities conducted propaganda campaigns 
     portraying ``cults'' like Falun Gong as ``dangers'' to 
     society that ``wreck families'' and ``poison the minds of 
     youth'', carried out strict surveillance of practitioners, 
     and detained and imprisoned large numbers of practitioners;
       Whereas, according to estimates by the Department of State 
     and human rights organizations, since 1999, from several 
     hundred to a few thousand Falun Gong adherents have died in 
     custody from torture, abuse, and neglect;
       Whereas a review of the Government of the People's Republic 
     of China by the United Nations Human Rights Council's Working 
     Group on the Universal Periodic Review in February 2009 
     reiterated concerns regarding human rights violations against 
     Falun Gong practitioners, including arrests, detention, 
     torture, and reeducation through labor camps;
       Whereas the Department of State's 2010 Human Rights Report 
     on China cited reports of Falun Gong adherents being 
     committed to mental health facilities, medicated against 
     their will, and forcibly subjected to electric shock 
     treatment;
       Whereas the Department of State's 2010 Human Rights Report 
     on China stated that the Government of the People's Republic 
     of China automatically censored e-mail and web chats based on 
     an ever-changing list of sensitive key words, such as ``Falun 
     Gong'', and periodically blocked the blogs of a number of 
     prominent activists, artists, scholars, and university 
     professors; and
       Whereas the 2010 Annual Report of the Congressional-
     Executive Commission on China found that lawyers involved in 
     human rights advocacy work--including in legal cases 
     involving Falun Gong practitioners and others deemed by the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China to threaten 
     ``social stability''--have been harassed by the Government of 
     the People's Republic of China based on who their clients are 
     and the causes those clients represent: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) expresses solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners and 
     their families for the lives, freedoms, and rights they lost 
     for adhering to their beliefs and practices;
       (2) calls upon the Chinese Communist Party to immediately 
     cease and desist from its campaign to persecute Falun Gong 
     practitioners and promptly release all Falun Gong 
     practitioners who have been confined, detained, or imprisoned 
     in retaliation for pursuing their right to hold and exercise 
     spiritual beliefs;
       (3) emphasizes to the Government of the People's Republic 
     of China that freedom of religion includes the right of Falun 
     Gong practitioners to freely practice Falun Gong in China;
       (4) calls upon the President, the Secretary of State, and 
     Members of Congress to--
       (A) mark the anniversary of the Government of the People's 
     Republic of China's official repression of the Falun Gong 
     spiritual movement;
       (B) express solidarity with persecuted Falun Gong 
     practitioners in China; and
       (C) meet with Falun Gong practitioners; and
       (5) expresses support for volunteers and participants of 
     the Tuidang movement for their peaceful efforts to reclaim 
     Chinese history and culture, and for their pursuit of a fair 
     and open government, a free people, and a society rooted in 
     the practice of virtue.

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