(Minghui.org) On a sweltering day with a temperature of 96 and heat index of 106, members of Congress and representatives of faith and human rights organizations gathered on the west lawn in front of the Capitol and spoke forcefully in calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China. The Chinese Communist Party’s campaign to eliminate this spiritual discipline began 14 years ago, on July 20, 1999. More than 1,500 Falun Gong practitioners attended the rally.

The rally

“These communist thugs have a particular interest in repressing Falun Gong practitioners who pursue Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance, the antithesis of what China’s rulers stand for,” said Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) to those at the rally.

On June 27, Ros-Lehtinen and Congressman Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) introduced House Resolution 281, which calls upon the People’s Republic of China to end organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, most of whom are Falun Gong practitioners.

Rep. Andrews expressed his hope in a letter read at the rally that this bipartisan resolution would expose the atrocities taking place in China and garner international pressure to end them.

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Congressman Ted Poe (R-Texas) said that no government should use violence against a peaceful movement to change its members’ beliefs. “That is wrong. It’s immoral.”

Poe’s point resonated with Kelley McLean, representing Jubilee Campaign USA, an advocacy organization for the human rights and religious liberty of ethnic and religious minorities around the world.

Congressman Ted Poe

McLean described the “re-education through labor” forced labor camps for Falun Gong practitioners and Christians, where “horrendous forms of torture to recant their faith” are used. “This coercion is sickening,” she said.

Dan Fefferman, chairman of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom, extended his respects to Falun Gong practitioners. He warned the Chinese regime and urged them to abandon materialism and give Chinese people their freedom. He encouraged Falun Gong practitioners to keep up the good work.

Dan Fefferman, International Coalition for Religious Freedom

Recognizing the True Nature of the Communist Party

Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation, a nonprofit that regularly holds forums for Congressional staff about defense and human rights issues, gave an example of this coercion. Scholte spoke movingly of the torture of Falun Gong practitioner Wang Chunying, who was held for over five years in the notorious Masanjia Women’s Forced Labor camp and was on one occasion handcuffed between two bunk beds for 16 hours. She said the police increased the pain by kicking the beds apart and tightening the handcuffs, which already touched the bone.

“As a Christian, I am greatly inspired by your resolve to respond to the horrific crimes being committed against you through peaceful means and steadfast advocacy,” Scholte said.

Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation

Li Dayong, CEO of the Global Service Center for Quitting CCP, said the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party had revealed the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its deception. The Nine Commentaries was an Epoch Times editorial series serialized in the fall of 2004 and since published as a book. It is credited with sparking a movement in China to renounce and withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations, which the Global Service Center tallies.

“Now we know that the CCP is not a normal organization. It is an evil group against humanity,” Li said, adding that the CCP deceives the world about its intentions by using special phrases such as “peaceful rising” and “not intervening with other country’s internal affairs.”

Li announced that the number of people who have quit the CCP and its affiliated CCP organizations has now reached 142 million.

Rong Yi, president of the Global Service Center for Quitting CCP, spoke as well. The crowd applauded as she handed out certificates for renouncing the CCP to 19 individuals who came up on the dais.

Justice Will Prevail

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has been recording the names and deeds of individuals responsible for human rights crimes in China.

Wang Zhiyuan, the organization’s spokesman, said that WOIPFG published its 6th update of the “organizations and individuals who are suspected to have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong” in March.

“Many Chinese Communist Party officials whose names are on the list contacted WOIPFG to provide more information in exchange for their names being removed from the list,” said Wang.

He said that they have recognized their faults and agreed to secretly aid the investigation in order to receive a lesser punishment in any future accounting of the crimes done during the persecution.

Wang compared the CCP’s human rights abuses to those committed by the Third Reich, and said that the Party’s violent and destructive behavior poses a challenge to the world.

Congressman Poe expressed his faith that the CCP’s victims will serves as witnesses to its crimes.

“Let me tell you something. In my opinion the Communist government has blood on its hands of the innocent,” Poe said. “But let me tell you something. Those people [who were persecuted to death]—they still speak from the grave about what has happened.”

Human Rights Should Trump Economic Interests

Speakers mentioned how the desire to promote trade with China has weakened the U.S. government’s response to human rights abuses, and how the people of the United States have been willing to accept cheap goods from China without considering the cost in human suffering.

“In a nation such as ours where people are happy to buy Christmas lights made in prison labor camps rather than pay more for those made by free men, the process of causing change is made very difficult in China,” said William Murray, chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition.

He added that the political powers that be in Congress are unwilling to do anything that will harm relations with the biggest U.S. trading partner, China.

William Murray, chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition

Gene Autry, co-author (with Peter Navarro) of "Death by China," said it is wrong to sell goods made by Falun Gong practitioners and others who are virtual slaves in prison. And he examined the consequences of decisions made by big companies to invest in China.

“CEOs of large, wealthy corporations think they are acting in the best interest of their shareholders by sending capital investment to China,” Autry said. “What that does is prop up the regime in China and legitimizes totalitarianism around the world.”

T. Kumar, International Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA, said that there is no reason to send peaceful people to labor camps. He called for the United States in its Human Rights Dialogue with China to place the persecution of Falun Gong at the top of its agenda.

T. Kumar, International Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA

Members of US Congress Speak Out

Several U.S. senators made strong statements in letters to the rally. Senator Tom Coburn, MD (R-Okla.), wrote that the Chinese regime’s stance against the “peaceful practice of Falun Gong practitioners” violates basic human rights. “The oppression of peaceful followers of Falun Gong is a clear indication that human rights abuses are omnipresent throughout China,” he stated in the letter.

Other U.S. senators who sent letters included Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Jenipher M. Camino Gonzalez, legislative correspondent for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), spoke at rally expressing the senator’s support.

Reps. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rush Holt (D-N.J.), Randy Neuegebauer (R-Texas), Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), and Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) each sent letters.