|
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF): ANNUAL REPORT 2017
Forced Organ Harvesting Highlighted
Released on April 26, 2017
Note: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2017 annual report on April 26. China content starts on Page 32 (Page 40 of the entire PDF file). The following is the Falun Gong section. Forced Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners is highlighted on that page.
http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2017.USCIRFAnnualReport.pdf
Falun Gong
The practice of Falun Gong has been banned since 1999 after the Chinese government labeled it an “evil cult,” and practitioners have been severely mistreated ever since. They are regularly confined in labor camps or prisons, or disappear altogether. While detained, Falun Gong practitioners suffer psychiatric and other medical experimentation, sexual violence, torture, and organ harvesting. A new report released in June 2016 by the International Coalition to End Organ Pillaging in China revealed that 60,000–100,000 organ transplants are performed in the country each year, an alarming discrepancy from the government’s claim of 10,000. Organ donors often are nonconsenting, particularly executed Falun Gong prisoners and detainees, though individuals from other faiths also have been targeted, such as Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Christians.
-------------------------------------------------------
Organ donors often are nonconsenting,
particularly executed
Falun Gong prisoners and detainees ....
-------------------------------------------------------
Zhiwen Wang, a Falun Gong practitioner who was persecuted and imprisoned for 15 years, was released in 2014, but the Chinese government has prevented him from receiving proper medical care and reuniting with his family in the United States. In 2016, Zhiwen was granted a passport and U.S. visa to leave China, but a customs agent at the airport nullified his passport. This occurred after Chinese police and undercover agents harassed and intimidated Zhiwen and his family for several days. For the second year in a row, in 2016 Chinese authorities attempted to suppress Chinese-born human rights advocate and Falun Gong practitioner Anastasia Lin. Chinese authorities had denied her a visa and barred her entry into mainland China from Hong Kong when the country hosted the 2015 Miss World competition. She competed in the 2016 Miss World competition in Washington, DC, but Chinese journalists and other “minders” relentlessly followed her, and pageant officials interfered with her ability to speak to the media and initially barred her from attending a screening of “The Bleeding Edge,” a movie about China’s forced organ harvesting in which she stars.
|
