Former Teacher Speaks Out on Children Being Victims of the CCP’s Persecution of Falun Gong

Guo Song, a former teacher from China, speaks at a rally to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 15, 2023. Yuan Hong/The Epoch Times

A former elementary school teacher from China spoke at a rally in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 15 to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, exposing the plight of families, particularly children, and abuses such as forced organ harvesting.

Guo Song taught at an elementary school in Shenyang city, Liaoning Province, for over 30 years. She fled China and recently arrived in New Zealand to avoid further persecution by the authorities.

On May 7, Ms. Guo was arrested and detained by the Chinese police for defending her brother, Guo Hong, a whistleblower who reported a local official for alleged bribery. Mr. Guo was tortured by police, and he remains in custody. During her 24-hour detention, Ms. Guo was strip-searched and interrogated while tied to a chair. After being released, she fled to New Zealand a month later.

Falun Gong

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline involving meditative exercises and moral teaching based on three core principles, truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The practice gained popularity in China during the 1990s, with estimates putting the number of adherents at 70 million to 100 million.

Fearing this posed a threat to its authoritarian control, the communist regime launched a sweeping campaign to eradicate the practice starting on July 20, 1999, a program that continues today. Since then, millions have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. Inside these facilities, adherents are tortured and face being killed for their organs.

The Arrest of an 8-Year-Old Girl’s Mother

Ms. Guo was fond of her students. She recalled how the CCP ripped apart the family of one of her students.

“It was back in the year 2000. An 8-year-old girl from my class ran into the classroom and jumped into my arms crying … I learned that the police had arrested her mother,” she said at the rally.

Oil painting "Homeless" (partial screenshot). A little girl came home from school and found that her parents had been arrested for practicing Falun Gong. The door was sealed by the “610 Office.” In China, many children are deprived of normal education and work opportunities because their parents or relatives practice Falun Gong. Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Ms. Guo decided to visit the girl’s family after school that day. She learned that the girl’s mother had been arrested for practicing Falun Gong, and police raided their home. The family was distraught.

Ms. Guo recalled that the child’s father said he would have to divorce his wife. The police told him to get a divorce just to cut ties with a Falun Gong practitioner and to avoid being criticized by society. Ms. Guo was shocked that a woman who posed no harm and committed no crimes would have to be imprisoned and taken away from her family due to her faith.

Torture at Masanjia Labor Camp

The student’s mother was sent to the Masanjia Labor Camp in the suburbs of Shenyang. The girl often approached Ms. Guo after class and told her how much she missed her mom. To Ms. Guo’s dismay, there was another student in her class whose mother was also arrested for practicing Falun Gong.

More than two years later, Ms. Guo met the girl’s mother, who was just released from the detention center. Ms. Guo did not reveal the woman’s name to protect her identity for fear of reprisals. Her husband had divorced her and forbade her from seeing their daughter. She could only wait outside of the school, wishing to catch a glimpse of her daughter.

Ms. Guo described the girl’s mother as very skinny but with a kind smile. The woman told Ms. Guo about the abuses that she and other Falun Gong practitioners had suffered in prison.

Ms. Guo recalled: “She told me that the police forced Falun Gong practitioners to denounce the founder of the practice, Mr. Li Hongzhi, and to speak evil of Falun Gong. They were forced to give up their faith and write renunciation statements. If they refused, they were denied food and water and made to work very long hours from 6 a.m. to midnight without any breaks.”

The girl’s mother told Ms. Guo that Falun Gong practitioners were brutally tortured and beaten when they resisted: “The police tied Falun Gong practitioners, with four limbs stretched, to a wooden board with a hole in it, and they put a bucket underneath the hole for feces and urine. People were tied up like that for several days. Eventually, one’s body would be unable to function.”

Ms. Guo said that she saw the sincerity and integrity of Falun Gong adherents, which starkly contrasted with how they were portrayed in the CCP’s state media. The girl’s mother told Ms. Guo that no one could force her to renounce her faith regardless of the persecution.

Masanjia Labor Camp is a notorious reeducation labor camp where Falun Gong adherents were subjected to a wide range of torture, including electrocution on women’s genitals. The documentary “Letter From Masanjia,” released in 2018, exposes the human rights violations committed by China’s communist regime.

The Masanjia Labor Camp in northeastern China was the site of numerous severe abuses against practitioners of Falun Gong, as documented by human rights groups. Courtesy of Minghui.org

Weaponizing Education System

Ms. Guo said the CCP had weaponized its education system to use it as a propaganda tool to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. China’s curriculum systematically smears Falun Gong and portrays adherents degradingly, promoting public hatred of the spiritual practice.

As an educator, Ms. Guo felt she had to follow her conscience to distinguish right from wrong and teach her students accordingly.

“Although I did not know much about Falun Gong when I came across such propaganda, I chose to skip teaching it [textbook material that slandered Falun Gong] or simply tell the children that faith is not a bad thing and people of faith are good people. I’m glad that I was teaching elementary school students; if I had taught this in a middle school classroom, I might get reported by the students,” she said.

The communist regime uses videos and monetary bribes to make children report on relatives or neighbors who uphold religious beliefs, reported Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China.

Organ Harvesting

While speaking at the rally, Ms. Guo mentioned that a hospital in Sujiatun was involved with the Chinese Communist Party’s lucrative organ harvesting business—a China Tribunal found that Falun Gong adherents were likely the primary source of such organs.

Ms. Guo learned about the live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners at the Sujiatun hospital through online reports via a VPN, bypassing China’s censorship or “great firewall.” She recalled a strange experience visiting the hospital with a friend.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) speaks during the meeting for legislative business regarding HR 1154 – Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023 in Washington, on March 27, 2023, in a still from a video. The House of Representatives/Screenshot via NTD

Ms. Guo described the hospital as a large facility specializing in treating thrombosis, and it did not have a variety of departments like the other hospitals. Many sections of the hospital building were restricted from the public, and she described the atmosphere as spooky and grim.

The Epoch Times previously reported that two witnesses, including a former nurse from the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital, testified in the United States that the hospital was detaining Falun Gong practitioners, harvesting their organs for sale, and then incinerating their bodies. This led to various international investigations into the CCP’s systematic organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners across China.

Ms. Guo mentioned that her friend’s parents were taken away by police for practicing Falun Gong. So when she read the reports about the Sujiatun hospital and its live organ harvesting practice, she believed such things could occur in China.

Ms. Guo also said that the torture and oppression used by the CCP against Falun Gong practitioners are also used against other people who are critical of the regime. In 2015, her brother reported a local government official for bribery schemes involving millions of dollars. Consequently, he was arrested, tortured, and remains in custody.

Ms. Guo called on the international community to take action to stop the persecution of Falun Gong, and she wished that more people could see the true nature of the CCP.