US Commission Renews Attention on Imprisoned Falun Gong Practitioner

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) speaks as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in Washington on March 10, 2021. Ken Cedeno/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Five weeks ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) renewed its concern about an imprisoned Chinese Falun Gong practitioner, urging the regime to end persecution of her faith group.

On Dec. 27, the CECC on Twitter highlighted Deng Cuiping, a former primary school teacher in Yuxi city, Yunnan Province, who is serving a six-year prison term for distributing Falun Gong materials in China. The chairs called for an end to over two decades of horrific abuses targeting the group, including torture.

This is the latest in a series of CECC reports in connection with a social media project known as #OlympicPrisoner, a hashtag meant to spotlight Chinese citizens behind the regime’s shiny Games façade.

On Dec. 2, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), who leads the CECC, announced the project, which will continue until the opening ceremony of the Games.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also mentioned Deng as a victim under the communist regime in a press release on July 20, marking the 22nd anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong.

Rubio called on Beijing to “stop undermining freedom of religion, and to once and for all end the ban on Falun Gong practice.” He said the CCP must release all individuals and practitioners who were held in prisons and in various detention centers throughout China.

Deng was found guilty on Feb. 24, 2017, for her religious activities and fined nearly $1,500, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Her arrest was on July 24, 2016, together with four other fellow practitioners, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that documents the CCP’s persecution of the community.

Previously, Deng was kept in jail for her belief in the practice for three years, between 2006 and 2009, during which time she experienced mental and physical torture.

Currently, Deng remains detained in the Second Women’s Prison of Yunnan Province, which has notorious records of treatment of Falun Gong practitioners, according to Minghui.

Practitioner Ding Guiying died in her 70s on Jan. 15, 2021, while detained in the province’s prison.

Another practitioner Xu Chunfeng was forced to take unidentified drugs, three times a day, while in prison for nearly two years, from Dec. 14, 2017, to Nov. 22, 2019. There, she became afflicted with declining memory and severe diarrhea.

Also in the prison, Wu Yun, 43, was forced to work 16 to 17 hours per day.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice consisting of slow-moving meditation exercises and moral teachings that promote truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance in everyday life. According to official estimates, its popularity peaked in the late 1990s in China, with 70 million to 100 million adherents. However, the CCP has suppressed the group due to political motivations, since 1999.