07/19/2017

China must respect religious freedom!

18th anniversary of the ban on Falun Gong (July 20) (Press Release)

The Falun Gong movement is a traditional spiritual practice for the body and the mind, based on the three principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Photo: longtrekhome via flickr

On occasion of the 18th anniversary of the ban on the meditation movement Falun Gong in China (July 20, 1999), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demanded an end to the intimidation, the arbitrary arrests, and the torture of Falun Gong supporters. “The persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners has claimed several thousand lives, due to torture in prison or suicide – especially in the early years. Dozens of Falun Gong practitioners are still being arrested every month. They are facing harsh punishments: at least 1,050 followers of the meditation movement have been sentenced to up to 12 years imprisonment since January 2013. China’s measures against Falun Gong are to be seen as violations of the constitutional right to religious freedom,” explained Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Wednesday.

The Falun Gong movement had become increasingly popular in China in the 1990s. It is a traditional spiritual practice for the body and the mind, based on the three principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The government – which had initially tolerated and even encouraged Falun Gong – feared that the popular movement might create a political opposition movement, so the practice was banned.

According to research by the STP, many of the detainees had been taken into custody by the authorities before, accused of supporting the meditation movement. One example is the case of Ji Delian, a 74-year-old woman who was arrested in Taiyuan (Shaanxi Province) on June 22, 2017, when she wanted to renew her identity documents. Despite her age, she is threatened with a three-year prison term – a judgement that was found in November 2015 – because she had allegedly endangered state security by supporting Falun Gong. In 1999, when the measures against Falun Gong started, she had traveled to the capital to protest. She was forcibly returned to her village and had to pay a fine. In December 2000, she was sent to a working camp for one year. She was arrested again in May 2014 and was released only after her family had intervened. In May 2015, she was arrested and placed under house arrest for attending a court case against another Falun Gong practitioner.

“The security forces are systematically monitoring anyone who is suspected of supporting Falun Gong, also using video cameras. In addition, movement data from mobile phones are evaluated in order to initiate new criminal proceedings against the Falun Gong supporters,” said Delius. “These people only want to live their faith – but China’s state power fears the meditation movement and had decided to treat its followers as dangerous enemies of the state. About 70 million people in China practice Falun Gong regularly, despite the massive repression.”

Header Photo: longtrekhome via flickr