Downing Street has praised adherents of Falun Gong for the group’s “commendable achievement” as practitioners in the UK commemorated the 24th anniversary of a peaceful appeal in Beijing.
A number of politicians also expressed support for the group, which has been a target of suppression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for over two decades.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that promotes the principles of “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.”
Originating in mainland China in 1992, Falun Gong attracted some 70 million practitioners, according to CCP estimates, before former Chinese regime leader Jiang Zemin turned the party apparatus against the practice.
According to the accounts of U.S. journalist Danny Schechter, on April, 25, 1999, around 10,000 to 15,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered around Zhongnanhai, the CCP leadership compound in Beijing, in a peaceful appeal after riot police in nearby Tianjin used violence and arrested 45 practitioners who protested over a derogatory article.
Falun Gong has previously said the group’s intended location was the National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration office, which was located beside Zhongnanhai.
The silent appeal seemed to have had a happy ending after then-Premier Zhu Rongji spoke to a number of representatives and ordered the release of arrested practitioners, but three months later, the CCP formally launched a campaign aimed at eradicating Falun Gong in three months.
Since then, adherents who refuse to denounce their belief have been subject to harassment, exclusion from education or employment, detention, torture, and killing, sometimes by forced organ harvesting.
In a letter sent to Wei Liu, director of the UK Falun Dafa Association, Downing Street said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appreciates the “kind gesture” of an invitation to attend a commemorative event on April 29.
“It is a commendable achievement for the Falun Gong practitioners to uphold their practice in such a way and I would like to extend my congratulations for their peaceful appeal to have reached 24 years,” the letter reads.
Letters from a number of cross-party politicians were also read at the rally in London.
Conservative MP Fiona Bruce, vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Freedom of Religion or Belief, extended her “heartfelt compassion for the unjust situation” in which Falun Gong practitioners have found themselves in.
She said the APPG stands with the group in its campaign for the right to practice Falun Gong “without fear and in peace.”
“No one should lose a job, miss out on education, be imprisoned, tortured, even killed, simply on account of their religion or belief,” she wrote.
Lord Pearson of Rannoch said the Chinese regime’s treatment of Falun Gong “can safely be described as evil,” and encouraged the group to “keep fighting” for their rights.
Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP and a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said she supports all parliamentary debates in China issues, “including the persecution of the Falun Gong,” and will continue to monitor the issue closely.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said it’s “deeply shocking” to read about the “sheer scale of the human rights abuses” Falun Gong practitioners have suffered, and said she doesn’t believe the UK government is doing enough to object and apply pressure to the CCP.
Bob Doris, a member of the Scottish Parliament, said, “The repression and denial of basic civil liberties that have been perpetrated by the Chinese state has been well documented.”
“These crimes are an ongoing moral and ethical scandal,” the Scottish National Party member said.
Doris said the UK government and other democracies “must take whatever steps they can to identify and challenge those responsible for persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials, torture, summary executions, and forced organ harvesting.”
