The principles of Falun Gong are universal values that all people can and should adopt and live by, says Benedict Rogers, co-founder and deputy chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission.
Mr. Rogers, who is Catholic, made the remark ahead of an annual celebratory event on Saturday, when hundreds of adherents of Falun Gong in London marked the introduction of the spiritual practice 32 years ago on May 13, 1992, a day designated by practitioners as “World Falun Dafa Day.”
Downing Street sent its “best wishes,” noting in a letter that the government “remains deeply concerned about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and others on the grounds of their religion or belief in China.”
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice that consists of slow-moving exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance (sometimes translated as tolerance or endurance).
The practice, introduced by Mr. Li Hongzhi, had attracted tens of millions followers in China by 1997. But in 1999, then-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin turned the state apparatus against the group, launching an eradication campaign that has lasted for 25 years.
Adherents of the practice who refuse to denounce their beliefs are subject to harassment, discrimination, exclusion from education or employment, arbitrary detention, torture, and murder, including by forced organ harvesting.
An independent people’s tribunal chaired by prominent British barrister and judge Sir Geoffrey Nice, KC in 2019 found that adherents of Falun Gong have been and continue to be the main group of victims killed for their organs. Evidence also pointed to forced organ harvesting of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in recent years.
Writing in support of the annual celebration and human rights awareness event, Mr. Rogers said, “The persecution is heart-breaking, especially when I know that Falun Gong practitioners live out their beliefs entirely peacefully.”
Falun Gong’s principles are “universal values, human values, that people of all religions and beliefs can and should adopt and live by,” Mr. Rogers said.
He paid tribute to practitioners whom he had met over the years, saying they are “hospitable, generous, kind, intelligent, peaceful and decent human beings” who had lived out the values “beautifully and with great dignity.”
“Let us continue to speak up for all people in China—Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghurs, and other Muslims, Taoists, and the right for everyone to practice their religion or belief,” he said.
“Let us continue to live by the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.”
Writing to Wei Liu, director of the UK Falun Dafa Association, Downing Street said all people should enjoy the freedom to practice, change, or share one’s faith or belief without discrimination or violent opposition.
Brendan O'Hara, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Scottish National Party (SNP), also expressed “very best wishes” and “a guarantee of [SNP’s] ongoing support.”
Mr. O'Hara said he had “said repeatedly in the House of Commons that there can be no hierarchy of atrocity, crime, and concerns over upsetting powerful allies, or fears over damaging trade links, cannot and must not ever lead us to a place where we turn a blind eye to such egregious breaches of human rights.”
He said he will raise the plight of Falun Gong practitioners, along with that of the Uyghurs and other minorities, when MPs debate the UK government’s relationship with China on Wednesday.
