Full Text of HR0029 102nd General Assembly
HR0029 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
| | HR0029 | | LRB102 10745 MST 16074 r |
|
| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, July 20, 2021 will mark 22 years since the | 3 | | Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a systematic and brutal | 4 | | campaign to "eradicate" the spiritual discipline of Falun | 5 | | Gong, a traditional Buddhist-based meditation practice whose | 6 | | core principles are truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; | 7 | | and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, When this persecution first began in 1999, there | 9 | | were 70 to 100 million people from all walks of life practicing | 10 | | Falun Gong in China according to the Chinese government's own | 11 | | estimate; persecution of Falun Gong is not limited to a | 12 | | specific region; it is in every province, every city, and | 13 | | every county throughout China; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, A 2007 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report | 15 | | states, "[the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred] Nowak | 16 | | reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 | 17 | | percent of victims of alleged torture while in government | 18 | | custody"; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, Since July 1999, there have been 4,609 documented | 20 | | cases of Falun Gong practitioners dying as a result of torture | 21 | | and abuse in police custody, yet due to the danger and | 22 | | difficulties of verifying each case and sending that |
| | | HR0029 | - 2 - | LRB102 10745 MST 16074 r |
|
| 1 | | information overseas, the true death toll is widely believed | 2 | | to be many times higher; and | 3 | | WHEREAS, On June 17, 2019, an independent tribunal in | 4 | | London, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC who worked at the | 5 | | International Criminal Tribunal and led the prosecution of | 6 | | Slobodan Milosevic, released its final judgment and concluded: | 7 | | "Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years | 8 | | throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong | 9 | | practitioners have been one - and probably the main - source of | 10 | | organ supply"; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of State Country Report on | 12 | | Human Rights for China in 2014 stated, "Advocacy groups | 13 | | continued to report instances of organ harvesting from | 14 | | prisoners"; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, In 2015, Freedom House reported that Falun Gong | 16 | | practitioners comprise the largest portion of prisoners of | 17 | | conscience in China and face an elevated risk of dying or being | 18 | | killed while in custody; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, The ramifications of such atrocities are beyond | 20 | | the Chinese border, as many organ recipients are westerners, | 21 | | and there has been much collaboration between the Chinese | 22 | | transplant industry and western medical professionals and the |
| | | HR0029 | - 3 - | LRB102 10745 MST 16074 r |
|
| 1 | | pharmaceutical industry; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, As the current pandemic shows, a lack of | 3 | | international censure to these horrific crimes has not only | 4 | | cost the lives of innocent Chinese but also those of many in | 5 | | the West; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, One of the lead investigators of the CCP's | 7 | | killing of Falun Gong practitioners for their organs, David | 8 | | Matas, explained: "…if China had faced global pressure for | 9 | | transparency and accountability in its health system in | 10 | | dealing with organ transplant abuses, we wouldn't have this | 11 | | coronavirus now. And we are suffering the consequences now of | 12 | | turning a blind eye to organ transplant abuse"; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, The CCP's mass campaign to vilify and eradicate | 14 | | Falun Gong and its core values of truthfulness, compassion, | 15 | | and tolerance is also an attack on the conscience of humanity | 16 | | and corrupts the moral fabric of Chinese society; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, This less visible yet more profound damage can | 18 | | have consequences in the West too, as immigrants from such a | 19 | | Chinese society are more likely to act as the CCP's surrogates | 20 | | and conduct technology thefts or espionage activities; and | 21 | | WHEREAS, A Chinese population with more access to free |
| | | HR0029 | - 4 - | LRB102 10745 MST 16074 r |
|
| 1 | | information and more exposure to western values will be less | 2 | | likely to become the CCP's accomplice or advance its agenda in | 3 | | the international community; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, The Washington Post reported in 1999 that many | 5 | | influential people in the party, the government, and the | 6 | | military practiced Falun Gong at that time, and Falun Gong | 7 | | practitioners have a deep understanding about the CCP and know | 8 | | best how to disintegrate it; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Falun Gong practitioners have been operating | 10 | | 200,000 or more underground printing houses to produce such | 11 | | material across China in what likely constitutes the largest | 12 | | non-violent, grassroots resistance in the world; and | 13 | | WHEREAS, It was Falun Gong practitioners who spearheaded | 14 | | international media companies that broadcast uncensored | 15 | | information to China via satellite TV and shortwave radio; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, It was Falun Gong practitioners who developed | 17 | | free ground-breaking internet freedom software, Freegate and | 18 | | Ultrasurf, which allow millions in China to bypass the Great | 19 | | Firewall and reach entire sectors of the Internet that are | 20 | | blocked by the CCP, as reported by the New York Times, Wall | 21 | | Street Journal, and many other media outlets; and
|
| | | HR0029 | - 5 - | LRB102 10745 MST 16074 r |
|
| 1 | | WHEREAS, As a result, to date, over 371 million Chinese | 2 | | people have withdrawn from the CCP and/or its affiliated | 3 | | organizations (most used pseudo-names to avoid the CCP's | 4 | | retaliation), a phenomenon similar to what happened right | 5 | | before the collapse of the Soviet Union; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, The killing of religious or political prisoners | 7 | | for the purpose of selling their organs for transplant is an | 8 | | egregious and intolerable violation of the fundamental right | 9 | | to life; therefore, be it
| 10 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 11 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 12 | | we condemn the persecution of Falun Gong, a traditional | 13 | | Buddhist-based meditation practice whose core principles are | 14 | | truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, as it reaches the 22 | 15 | | year mark since the Chinese Communist Party launched a | 16 | | systematic and brutal campaign to "eradicate" the spiritual | 17 | | discipline of Falun Gong; and be it further | 18 | | RESOLVED, That we encourage the medical community in the | 19 | | United States to help raise awareness of unethical organ | 20 | | transplant practices in China; and be it further
| 21 | | RESOLVED, That we condemn the practice of state-sanctioned | 22 | | forced organ harvesting in the People's Republic of China.
|
|