Falun Gong adherents take part in a march to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China, in New York's Chinatown on July 15, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times
In a summer marked by the war ravaging Ukraine, rampant inflation, heat waves, and other global disruptions, one additional dismal human milestone must be acknowledged in all its horrific totality.
July 20 marks the 24th year since the beginning of the persecution of the peaceful practice of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Though it will largely be ignored by the mainstream media, this tragic and dreary anniversary is being recognized by Falun Gong adherents in Washington, New York, San Francisco, and other cities around the world this month.
The CCP Directive to ‘Eliminate’ Falun Gong
In 1999, Falun Gong had an estimated 100 million practitioners in China. Fearful of its growing base of adherents, then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin began a policy whereby Falun Gong would be “eliminated.” Though the actual number of Falun Gong members today varies according to different sources, the fact remains that they are targeted by the CCP with cruelty that rises to the level of genocide.
What’s more, it’s important to understand that the CCP’s institutionalization and normalization of state-sponsored torture, rape, and other forms of cruelty by no means indicates that the level of persecution against minorities like the Falun Gong has diminished in any way, shape, or form.
A Replay of Nazi-Era Genocide?
Actually, over the past several years, the level of persecution has intensified, and it has become undeniably clear that the level of the atrocities that the CCP committed against its citizens rivals that of the Nazis during the Second World War.
For example, according to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, there is “overwhelming evidence” of the CCP engaging in forced organ harvesting on Falun Gong practitioners and ethnic minorities on an industrial scale. Like other forms of torture that it inflicts upon its people, forced organ harvesting occurs while the victim is still alive, according to the China Tribunal report of 2020.
But the CCP isn’t acting alone in its war on Falun Gong, nor are its actions limited to mainland China. Shamefully, the CCP has been aided and abetted for over a decade by American companies and medical institutions.
Falun Gong adherents hold a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese Consulate to mark 24 years of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party, in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 23, 2023. Emma Hsu/The Epoch Times
US Firms Paid in Blood Money for CCP’s ‘Golden Shield’
The U.S.-based tech firm Cisco remains the target of a lawsuit filed in 2011. The suit alleges that Cisco provided the CCP with technological assistance, enabling the authorities to conduct and expand their capture and persecution of Falun Gong adherents. Two former executives allegedly knowingly supplied the tracking and surveillance technology needed to enhance the CCP’s ability to persecute Falun Gong.
The system that Cisco is accused of helping the CCP construct is known as the “Golden Shield Project.” Today, this data-driven surveillance platform covers all of China. Cisco is accused of designing, manufacturing, and providing the technological know-how to implement and fine-tune the Golden Shield apparatus at a time when the CCP lacked the technical capability to do so.
But Cisco isn’t the only American firm with blood on its hands. According to the report “China’s Surveillance State: A Global Project,” technological assistance has continued. The report also shows that in addition to Cisco, American tech firms such as Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle supplied “vital equipment to Chinese police departments across the country.”
Apparently, for these American tech firms, China’s multibillion-dollar technology market is more important than the genocidal crimes against humanity in which their pro-CCP business partners most enthusiastically engage.
Once Is Not Enough?
Is there any other conclusion that can be drawn?
Sadly, this isn’t the first time that corporate America has played an integral role in genocidal regimes. Several U.S. firms were critical enablers of Nazi Germany’s genocidal policies, including IBM.
Additionally, U.S. medical schools and institutions continue to accept and train mainland Chinese students, which plays a role in allowing the expansion of forced organ harvesting. Dr. Richard Amerling, former president and current board member of the Association for American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), condemned the medical establishment for training medical students from China because a significant number will become engaged in the forced organ donor genocide once they return home to China.
“It’s absolutely barbaric, inhumane, unethical. There’s no way to justify this at all,” Dr. Amerling told The Epoch Times regarding the CCP’s forced organ harvesting practice.
Of course, Dr. Amerling is right in condemning the American medical establishment’s enabling role in the CCP’s forced organ harvesting and Falun Gong genocide. But where is the condemnation from the rest of corporate America?
It doesn’t appear that much, if any, will be forthcoming any time soon.
Like the secret “police stations” in American cities that the CCP continues to run in plain sight, with minimal legal or diplomatic disruption from U.S. authorities, the CCP’s genocidal war against Falun Gong clearly shows that too many influential American technology firms and institutions of higher learning lack the most basic elements of humanity or decency.
If the past is prologue, the price we will pay for enabling the CCP may be quite high. After all, who will stand up to the brutalities of the genocidal CCP regime if not “One Nation Under God”?
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
James Gorrie
Author
James R. Gorrie is the author of “The China Crisis” (Wiley, 2013) and writes on his blog, TheBananaRepublican.com. He is based in Southern California.
