Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Hearing on "Falun Gong in China: Review and Update"

Representative Christopher Smith, Chairman and Senator Sherrod Brown, Cochairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China announce a hearing on "Falun Gong in China: Review and Update"

In 1999, the Chinese government and Communist Party launched a campaign of persecution against the Falun Gong spiritual movement that has now lasted for more than 13 years.

In addition to arrests of practitioners, imprisonment, and sentences to reeducation-through-labor (RTL)—and many reported deaths—the Chinese government and Communist Party have pressured Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief and practice. The campaign has been documented by the CECC in its Annual Reports and by other human rights organizations. The Chinese government and Communist Party have also continued to harass and detain persons who attempted to assist Falun Gong practitioners, including human rights lawyers such as Wei Liangyue, Wang Yonghang, and Gao Zhisheng.

At the hearing, panels of experts on China and the Falun Gong spiritual movement will review the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese government and the Communist Party and update members of the Commission and the general public on recent developments.

This hearing will be webcast.

Witnesses:

Panel I:

Bruce Chung, Falun Gong practitioner detained in China earlier this year

Hu Zhiming, Twice-imprisoned Falun Gong practitioner

Sarah Cook, Senior Research Analyst, Freedom House

Jianchao Xu, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Panel II:

Charles Lee, M.D., Spokesman, Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party

James Tong, Professor of Political Science, University of California-Los Angeles

Caylan Ford, Independent Researcher

Yiyang Xia, Senior Director of Research and Policy (China), Human Rights Law Foundation

This announcement will be updated if additional witnesses will provide testimony.

Click here to download a copy of the Commission's full 2012 Annual Report.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, established by the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 as China prepared to enter the World Trade Organization, is mandated by law to monitor human rights, including worker rights, and the development of the rule of law in China. The Commission by mandate also maintains a database of information on political prisoners in China-individuals who have been imprisoned by the Chinese government for exercising their civil and political rights under China's Constitution and laws or under China's international human rights obligations. All of the Commission's reporting and its Political Prisoner Database are available to the public online via the Commission's Web site, http://www.cecc.gov.