The Act mandates visa- and property-blocking sanctions on individuals involved in the abuse. It seeks to highlight the persecution of Falun Gong on an international level and emphasizes cooperation with allies and multilateral institutions to implement targeted sanctions and visa restrictions. Furthermore, it establishes U.S. policy to avoid cooperation with China in the organ transplant sector while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains in power.
Falun Gong practitioners remain a primary target of these inhumane activities. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice combining meditation and moral teachings based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It was founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi and rapidly gained popularity in China during the early 1990s. The CCP, fearing the traditional practice’s popularity, launched an intensive, comprehensive, and unforgiving campaign against the movement.
The CCP employs the “responsibility system” to persecute Falun Gong practitioners by holding local officials accountable for suppressing the movement. This system incentivizes meeting specific target goals related to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, such as arrests, forced conversions, and propaganda dissemination. Officials who meet or exceed their targets are rewarded with promotions, bonuses, and other incentives, while failures are severely punished.
In March 2006, U.S. Falun Gong representatives asserted thousands of their fellow practitioners were interned in 36 concentration camps throughout China. In particular, the site in Sujiatun, near the city of Shenyang, was a working hospital holding 6,000 Falun Gong prisoners, with the vast majority being put to death and their organs harvested for profit.
Since 1999, U.S. congressional members have made numerous public statements and introduced several resolutions supporting Falun Gong while criticizing the Chinese regime’s human rights record.
The (pending) U.S. Congress Falun Gong Protection Act mandates sanctions on individuals involved in the abuse and seeks to highlight the persecution of Falun Gong on an international level.
If passed, the Act will empower the U.S. president to impose visa and property-blocking sanctions on foreign individuals who are knowingly responsible for, complicit in, or engaged in the involuntary harvesting of organs in China. Those who violate this Act may face a civil fine of up to $250,000 or a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The Act is drafted in a way that emphasizes working with allies and global institutions to highlight this ongoing targeting of Falun Gong, making it U.S. policy to avoid cooperation with China regarding the organ transplant sector.
The continuous persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is an unforgivable human rights issue that has garnered significant international attention. By imposing sanctions and coordinating with the international community, the United States and other countries will continue to affect change in the way the Chinese regime treats its citizens.