In the course of an event organized by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) at the United Nations in Geneva, a Chinese diplomat accused several representatives of different minority groups of presenting themselves as “so-called victims,” of spreading rumors, and of slandering China.  

“Chinese representatives are denying clear facts about the crimes of their government, trying to intimidate representatives of ethnic and religious groups. Also, the government is deliberately sending organizations to events in Geneva with the purpose of praising the human rights situation in China. The democratic states must see through this double strategy and condemn it,” demanded Hanno Schedler, STP expert on genocide prevention. The STP’s side event took place on March 18, in the scope of the current session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Lebin Ding, a member of the podium who reported on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, added: “The delegation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not refute any of the crimes China has committed against Falun Gong practitioners. Instead, the Chinese government is trying to gloss over and whitewash its crimes against humanity by spreading lies and propaganda and by using transnational repression to ensure that the crimes will not be condemned.”

In the course of the event, representatives of the Tibetans, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Falun Gong practitioners provided details on the situation of their families and communities in China.

“I can’t forget what I experienced. As long as I live, my body will bear the signs of torture from my time in prison,” stated Erbakit Otarbay, a Kazakh survivor of the Chinese camps in Xinjiang / East Turkestan, on torture in the camps.

The Uyghur Dolkun Isa reported how his parents died in the camps and how two of his brothers were sentenced to life and 20 years in prison. He spoke about forced labor, family separations, and the Chinese government’s disinformation campaign on the situation in East Turkestan.

“Monasteries are destroyed in order to build hydropower plants,” reported Thinlay Chukki, who is from Tibet. She spoke about the forced relocation of thousands of Tibetans, as a means to make way for hydropower plants, the consequences of Chinese compulsory boarding schools for Tibetan children, the ban on religious activities, and the smear campaign against the Dalai Lama. Further, she recalled the disappearance of the Panchen Lama, who was abducted by the Chinese authorities 30 years ago, together with his family.  

The human rights activist Lebin Ding reported on the intensified global persecution of the Falun Gong movement by the Chinese Communist Party. He reiterated that Falun Gong practitioners have been victims of state-run forced organ harvesting – which the China Tribunal in London had already condemned in 2019. One of the illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners is his father Yuande Ding, who was arbitrarily sentenced to three years in prison because of his belief in the Chinese meditation movement. Referring to EU resolutions and the American Falun Gong Protection Act, he appealed to the democratic states in the UN to impose sanctions on those responsible for the brutal crimes and to condemn and stop the increased transnational repression against Falun Gong and other persecuted groups.