24 Apr 2011
In China today, between 500,000 and over 1 million Falun Gong
practitioners are incarcerated at any given time making them the
largest group of prisoners of conscience in China, if not the
world.
In China today, a Falun Gong practitioner dies from torture and
abuse in custody every three days (and those are only the cases we
know about).
In China today, tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners face
lawlessness and brutality.
In China today, the regime continues to spend billions to wipe out
Falun Gong.
In China today, millions of Falun Gong practitioners and supporters
operate the largest grassroots underground media in the world,
printing (mostly out of private homes) and distributing newsletters
about the ongoing persecution with the hope that fellow citizens
will realize the extent of the atrocities and not be complicit.
The State Department's Michael Posner, who will lead the U.S. side
of the upcoming human rights dialogue with China, acknowledged at a
recent press conference that China's labor camps were "full of
people that have affiliation with Falungong" (news). The Congressional-Executive Commission
on China published last month a detailed analysis outlining a
nationwide campaign to intensify "tranformation" of Falun Gong
practitioners (analysis).
As U.S. diplomats prepare to sit down with their Chinese
counterparts in Beijing, the Falun Dafa Information Center urges
them to have a direct and meaningful discussion about the
12-year-old campaign of suppression and violence of Falun Gong
practitioners in China.