Mainland China is the site of some of the largest and most brutal human rights abuses. Chinese of faith have been persecuted since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power in 1949. They have been arrested, tortured, put in labor camps as prisoners of conscience, and even mass-murdered for their organs.
Tibet was part of the last Chinese dynasty, but exercised rights of self-rule until the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. The persecution of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture began on July 10, 1950 when troops from the newly-formed communist China occupied parts of the region and defeated the local military forces.
Tibetan monks beaten in the streets. Image: Daily Motion
By early 1957, the Tibetan government had rebelled because of the CCP’s harsh religious and economic policies. The CCP is an atheist regime, but demands control over all religious groups.
To put down the rebellion, the CCP caused mass terror and destruction. Many Tibetan civilians were tortured and murdered, and the Chinese army destroyed buildings and temples. The daughters of Tibetans who expressed discontent were stripped and molested by Chinese soldiers. To humiliate Tibetan Buddhism, many nuns were gang-raped and both monks and nuns forced to marry in order to break their vows of celibacy.
Tibet was a severe victim in the Great Leap Forward campaign that resulted in the starvation deaths of tens of millions of people across China. As many as one million Tibetans perished because they were forced to abandon their traditional herding lifestyle and join inefficient communal farms.
Image by thetibetpost.com
During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Red Guards destroyed thousands of Tibetan monasteries. Only a few survived.
Today, the CCP still persecutes Tibetan Buddhists and enforces policies that discriminate against Tibetan people and culture. Some Tibetan dissidents have been killed for their organs to be harvested.
Two crosses salvaged from the debris of a destroyed church are seen at the Bailu Township in Pengzhou, Sichuan Province, China, on May 31, 2008. (China Photos/Getty Images)
The CCP fears religion because it demands that the people place faith in the teachings of Marx, not gods. The Christians are no exception and were persecuted and murdered in large numbers from the beginning of communist rule. Today, the CCP only allows Christianity to be practiced by followers of CCP-controlled Protestant and Catholic Churches; it does not allow Chinese Catholics to recognize the authority of the Vatican.
A crane lowers down a cross from the roof of a church in Zheijang, China. At right, a toppled concrete cross lies on the ground.
Christians who choose to attend congregations not controlled by the CCP can be detained and sent to do slave labor. In 2014 over 2,000 church crosses were removed from churches in Zhejiang, usually under the excuse of violating building regulations. Priests have been detained and some of them tortured or killed in custody.
China Aid reported:
“In response to the growth of Christianity in China, the Chinese government has instituted various campaigns to persecute both house churches and government-sanctioned TSPM [‘Three-Self Patriotic Movement’] churches throughout China by harassing, abusing, arresting, and, in many cases, sentencing pastors and church members to prison.”
Christians persecution in China
“It is fair to say that the rapid increase in the number of Christians in China over the past decade as triggered a unique sense of crisis within the CCP. As the Christian faith continues to grow in China, so does the number of Chinese citizens who embrace rule of law, oppose totalitarian governance, and support the expansion of civil society. As ongoing growth of house churches in both rural and urban areas is perceived by the CCP as a serious threat, the CCP’s suppression of Tibetan Buddhism, Islam in Xinjiang and surrounding areas, and Falun Gong practitioners persists.
Chinese people have practiced meditation and spiritual cultivation for thousands of years. In the 1980s, China experienced its qigong boom, with millions of people doing traditional exercises such as Tai Chi.
Falun Gong, a practice with ancient roots, was introduced to the public in China in 1992. Because it was free, easy to learn, and effective in improving physical and mental health, it gained an estimated 100 million adherents in just seven years. The Chinese government supported Falun Gong because it taught its practitioners to apply the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance in everyday life.
More than 10,000 people practicing Falun Gong before the Changchun Culture Palace. (Minghui.org)
But some in the communist regime considered Falun Gong’s traditional beliefs and morality to be dangerous to the CCP’s power. Jiang Zemin, who was head of the Party at the time, directed state propaganda to slander Falun Gong and paint it as a dangerous cult. In July 1999, he ordered a nation-wide campaign to crush the peaceful, non-political practice.
The persecution of Falun Gong started since July 20, 1999. Image: minghui.org
Police around China detained millions of Falun Gong practitioners, who became the biggest group of Chinese persecuted for their beliefs. Many were tortured to death in prison, or were forced to do heavy labor.
Practitioners of Falun Gong act out numerous torture methods employed on a widespread scale by Chinese officials against practitioners in China during an event in the U.S. (The Epoch Times)
Since 2006, human rights investigations show that the CCP has carried out widespread organ harvesting on Falun Gong prisoners while the victims are still alive. A report by former Canadian lawmaker David Kilgour, human rights lawyer David Matas, and journalist Ethan Gutmann— collates publicly reported figures from hospitals across China to show what they claim is a massive discrepancy between official figures for the number of transplants carried out throughout the country. It is revealed in the report that the Chinese government, the Communist Party, the health system, doctors and hospitals are complicit.
“The Communist Party says the total number of legal transplants is about 10,000 per year. But we can easily surpass the official Chinese figure just by looking at the two or three biggest hospitals,” Human rights lawyer Matas said.
Falun Gong practitioners demonstrating a scene of organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience by the Chinese Communist Party. Photo: Epoch Times.
“The Chinese government has been trafficking in organs for profit for far too long and we have strong evidence that Falun Gong practitioners were singled out for organ harvesting,” said Representative Chris Smith, who co-chairs the U.S House Foreign Affairs Committee.
In a statement released online, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, former chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Chinese government’s “ghoulish and inhumane practice of robbing individuals of their freedom, throwing them in labor camps or prisons, and then executing them and harvesting their organs for transplants is beyond the pale of comprehension and must be opposed universally and ended unconditionally.”
Liberal MP Judy Sgro was one of several MPs who attended a rally on Parliament Hill on Dec. 9, 2015, and spoke in support of ending the campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China that was launched in 1999. (Evan Ning/Epoch Times)
On June 13 of 2016, the US Congress passed Resolution 343 to condemn organ harvesting and call upon China to stop the persecution of Falun Gong. Similar resolutions have been passed in Europe and Israel.
Falun Gong practitioners hold a candlelight vigil in Guang Ming Park in Chungli, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Image: minghui.org
Feature Image by: The Center for Justice and Accountability – CJA.org