(Minghui.org) As the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reached its 24-year anniversary mark on July 20, 2023, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) tweeted on the same day, condemning the persecution and demanding the CCP to release all detained Falun Gong practitioners.
“For the past 24 years, #FalunGong practitioners have suffered the most appalling human rights abuses imaginable – abuses that are ongoing. FLG prisoners must be released and PRC officials held accountable for their crimes, including by @UNHumanRights, say @CECCgov Chairs,” wrote chair Representative Chris Smith and co-chair Senator Jeff Merkley.
In another tweet, CECC urged “the PRC government to unconditionally release #XuNa, #DengCuiping, #ZhouDeyong and all detained #FalunGong practitioners, including cases found in the @CECCgov’s searchable Political Prisoner Database.”
Ms. Xu Na, mentioned in the tweet, is an artist based in Beijing. Because of her practicing Falun Gong, she has been repeatedly arrested and detained in the past two decades. For providing shelters to practitioners from out of town, Ms. Xu was sentenced to five years in 2001. She and her husband, Mr. Yu Zhou, were both arrested in 2008 prior to the Beijing Olympics. Mr. Yu was beaten to death 11 days later and Ms. Xu was sentenced to three years in prison. Ms. Xu was arrested again in July 2020 and sentenced to eight years in January 2022, just one month before the commencement of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Ms. Deng Cuiping was an elementary school teacher in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province. She had her home ransacked in August 1999 and October 2000. She was arrested on April 8, 2006 and sentenced to three years at the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison. She was fired by her school and lived a destitute life. She was arrested again on July 24, 2016 and later sentenced to another six years. Now she is subject to “strict management” in the prison for not renouncing Falun Gong.
Mr. Zhou Deyong, a senior geological engineer employed by the Shengli Oilfield in Dongying City, Shandong Province, was arrested on April 23, 2021. He appeared in court three times for the next two years before being sentenced to eight years and fined 100,000 yuan on April 22, 2023.
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