(Minghui.org) As the top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping visits the United States, some people are focused on trade, while others are concerned about China’s human rights issues. One topic that cannot be ignored is the persecution of Falun Gong, a human rights catastrophe that has lasted 27 years.
Anyone familiar with China’s history since 1949 likely knows about two disastrous political movements launched by the CCP: the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution. However, many fail to notice that the duration and number of victims of these two movements have been far exceeded by the persecution of Falun Gong.
Below are some statistics on two major political campaigns that the CCP launched in the past.
The Anti-Rightist Campaign: 2 Years and 550,000 to 2 Million Victims
The Anti-Rightist Campaign was launched in full force in June 1957 with the publication of an editorial in People’s Daily and basically ended by the summer of 1958. This high-intensity nationwide campaign to identify “rightists” lasted one to two years. Those labeled “rightists” and their families were subjected to continuous “reform through labor,” political discrimination, and social exclusion for over two decades, spanning the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, and the Cultural Revolution. But it wasn’t until 1978 that the Central Committee of the CCP decided to rehabilitate the “wrongly labeled” rightists. According to publicly available official records, approximately 550,000 people were formally labeled as “rightists.”
Most independent scholars and historical studies estimate the actual number of people who suffered expulsion, re-education through labor, demotion, and exile at one to two million. If the impact on their relatives is also taken into account, the total affected population would be even larger.
The Cultural Revolution: 10 Years, 2 to 20 Million Victims
The Cultural Revolution began on May 16, 1966, and ended with the “crushing of the Gang of Four” on October 6, 1976, after Mao Zedong’s death. International historical and sociological research generally estimates the number of unnatural deaths caused by various armed conflicts, purges, political persecutions, and mass killings (such as the Guangxi Massacre and the Inner Mongolia People’s Party Incident) at 1.5 million to 2 million.
If we include those who suffered illegal detention, brutal criticism sessions, home raids, exile to the countryside, and those whose families were destroyed by association, the total number of victims would reach as high as 20 million, a significant portion of China’s population at the time. This period was later described as “Ten Years of Turmoil” and “Ten Years of Catastrophe.”
Before the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, internal investigations by the CCP (including those conducted by the State General Administration of Sport) and official media reported that as many as 70 to 100 million people in China were practicing Falun Gong. At the time, this represented 6% to 8% of China’s total population. In reality, the percentage could have been even higher since Falun Gong does not have a membership system or roster, making it difficult for many practitioners to be counted. All of these practitioners and their families were directly targeted by the persecution policy directed by the 610 Office.
Since July 1999, this massive group and their families have been subjected to intense psychological pressure, economic deprivation, and torture by the CCP state apparatus. Former CCP leader Jiang Zemin issued directives against Falun Gong practitioners to “ruin their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and eliminate them physically.”
Number of Direct Victims
According to Minghui.org and international human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, over the past 27 years (1999 to 2026), millions of people have been subjected to illegal administrative detention, criminal detention, long-term wrongful imprisonment, brainwashing in so-called legal education centers (later renamed “comprehensive governance offices”), and internment in forced labor camps.
In addition to being put through “transformation” campaigns (forcing practitioners to renounce their beliefs, often through torture), practitioners have been denied schooling and employment, forced to live away from their homes to avoid persecution, and monitored around the clock. Their assets have also been confiscated.
Minghui.org, which serves as the main source of data related to the persecution of Falun Gong, has recorded and verified tens of thousands of cases of death or disability caused by torture, abuse, and medical abuse. What has been verified so far is only the tip of the iceberg. It is difficult to obtain information on many cases because the CCP issued secret orders directing that deaths of Falun Gong practitioners resulting from beatings be counted as suicides and that their bodies be cremated without checking the deceased’s identity.
Meanwhile, international investigations, such as the independent China Tribunal in London, have estimated that hundreds of thousands of illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners have been killed for their organs.
Harm Extends to Families and Society
Practitioners’ families have also been victimized by the persecution. In addition to fearing for the safety of their loved ones, they are often threatened by the authorities and pressured by the police to help force practitioners to renounce their faith. Local authorities have also threatened the jobs of practitioners’ children in these pressure campaigns.
In addition to enacting collective punishment, the CCP enlists the education system to indoctrinate students with its propaganda against targeted groups. School curricula and textbooks are required to include content attacking Falun Gong, the United States, and Japan. As a result of these propaganda campaigns in schools, workplaces, and state-controlled media, most people in China developed fear and hatred toward Falun Gong. Even those who held favorable views learned to censor themselves.
If we include all family members and other relatives of Falun Gong practitioners (not counting colleagues, classmates, and neighbors), the total number of Chinese people impacted by the persecution could easily reach hundreds of millions.
If live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners signifies the brutality of the CCP’s persecution, then the duration of the persecution and the total number of victims might represent the extent of the CCP’s fear and hatred toward Falun Gong.
Why, in the 21st century, would a party that commands all of the nation’s resources, military, courts, and prisons target a group of peaceful meditators so fiercely? The answer is simple: a regime based on class struggle, hatred, and lies cannot tolerate the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance represented by Falun Gong.