(Minghui.org) The International Religious Freedom Roundtable, a nonprofit organization, held its weekly meeting on June 9, 2020, with U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback in attendance. Ingrid Wu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Hong Kong, was invited to speak during the meeting.
“I’d like to bring to your attention the pressure we are facing and our worries about the freedom of belief here in Hong Kong, under the threat of the National Security Law that was recently passed in China,” Wu said during the meeting. She said that the application of this law would affect Falun Gong practitioners and all religions.
CCP Attacks Falun Gong Practitioners in Hong Kong
“Ever since the persecution of Falun Gong in China started 21 years ago, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has been constantly monitoring Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong and interfering, directly or indirectly, with our activities.”
She gave the following examples of the attacks carried out even under “one country two systems.” “In 2016, when the Asia-Pacific Falun Gong conference was held in Hong Kong, a pro-CCP group called the venue with a bomb threat, causing the conference to be interrupted and eventually canceled.
“The Hong Kong Youth Care Association (a CCP supported organization which specifically targets Falun Gong in Hong Kong) harassed and began beating Falun Gong practitioners on the street and at scenic sites since 2013.”
“In September 2019, two men used a baton to whack the head of one of our female coordinators, causing severe bleeding, right after she left the police station where she applied for permission to protest on China’s National Day.”
“The Hong Kong government denied practitioners’ applications for venues for conferences or other events for many years.
“The office of the factory that prints the newspaper Epoch Times was smashed several years ago,” Wu said. “Right when the newspaper was taking a leading role reporting the mass protests last year. Some thugs, believed to be sent by the CCP, set our printing equipment on fire on November 19, 2019.”
“The above incidents happened even when Hong Kong enjoyed semi-autonomy. Once the National Security Law puts an end to 'One Country Two Systems,' our safety and freedom will be further endangered.”
The Proposed Security Law Endangers Freedom of All Religions in Hong Kong
“We may lose the right to publicly do our exercises and hold events,” Wu said. “We may experience what Falun Gong practitioners in China have gone through in the last 21 years – constant harassment, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, torture, and even organ harvesting,” Wu said during the meeting.
“In mainland China, the underground churches that truly believe in God all face suppression. Other religions including Buddhism in Tibet and some other religious believers face the same issue. Their original religious teachings are suppressed.” They must follow the CCP’s orders and guidelines, but the Party is atheist.
The US State Department released the 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom after the round table meeting. The report pointed out that religious freedom has deteriorated in China.
For 21 consecutive years, China has been listed as a “country of special attention” due to its infringement on religious freedom. The report condemned the CCP’s persecution of human rights including Falun Gong practitioners. It also mentioned the arson at the Epoch Times printing facility and the attack on the practitioner in 2019.
“I believe that along with more people and governments paying attention to the security law in Hong Kong, the reckless CCP will be restricted,” Wu pointed out.
Some people sent messages to Wu after her speech and asked what they could do to help and asked to keep in touch.
Wu said that the promotion of religious freedom as a core objective of US foreign policy was inspiring, as the U.S. will protect universal values across the world.
The World Is Awakening to the CCP’s Nature of Being Against Humanity
“The CCP suppresses religious freedom. It is a challenge to the universal values of humankind,” Wu said. When the CCP presents economic interests to people or countries, will they choose their interest over humanity's universal values?
Wu noted that during the past several decades, the CCP has used economic interests to coerce other countries to keep silent on its poor human rights record. “This means that people abandon their principles. The CCP's nature against universal values and humanity has caused suffering and losses to people all over the world.”
Wu mentioned that the coronavirus spread across the world due to the CCP’s initial cover up and disinformation. The entire world is suffering during this pandemic, but people are awakening to the CCP’s true nature.
Falun Gong Practitioners Raising Awareness
“As practitioners, we do not pursue politics or power,” Wu said. “Why does the CCP want to persecute Falun Gong? It is because we practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. We look inward when facing conflicts and we bear hardships.”
The CCP controls China with lies and violence, and cannot tolerate so many people following mankind's universal values. So the Party continues to conduct a brutal persecution against Falun Gong and carries out policies against religions and mankind’s traditional culture.
She pointed out that practitioners' response to the CCP’s campaign of defamation and brutal persecution is to raise awareness to the public and to clarify the truth.
“People are misled by the CCP’s propaganda and have in turn become victims because they don't know the truth. They may make wrong decisions by assisting the Party in the persecution. So raising awareness helps them know the true information.”
Wu said that the CCP is atheist and is against universal values. She feels it's the practitioners' responsibility to remind people of mankind's traditional values.
