A Republican lawmaker and a U.S. government panel have drawn attention to the imprisonment of two Chinese citizens as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong. Zhou Deyong and Liu Aihua, who are relatives of U.S. residents and victims of the regime’s suppression of freedom of belief, are now included in U.S. databases that document prisoners of conscience in China. Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), an advocate for Zhou under the Defending Freedoms Project, emphasized the importance of speaking out against these transgressions and pressuring the CCP to grant its people fundamental human rights, including the right to worship. He added Zhou’s case to the database and sent a letter to Chinese officials demanding his unconditional release.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that involves meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The practice gained popularity in China in the 1990s, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million adherents. However, the atheist communist regime viewed the large number of practitioners as a threat to its control and launched a campaign in 1999 to eradicate the practice. Since then, millions have been detained and hundreds of thousands have been tortured in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
The Defending Freedoms Project, launched by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission along with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and Amnesty International USA, aims to highlight human rights abuses by advocating for prisoners of conscience globally. Bilirakis, who has previously spoken out against the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, has chosen to advocate for Zhou’s freedom by adding his case to the database and demanding his unconditional release.
Zhou, a geological engineer, was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined 100,000 yuan (about $14,506) following two years of detention. His wife and son in Florida had limited information about his well-being during this time. Liu Aihua, who had previously been arrested 11 times and spent eight years in detention facilities, was sentenced to four years in prison for distributing and possessing Falun Gong-related materials. Her family has been barred from visiting her, and there is no information about her well-being.
Zhou’s case is now featured in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Political Prisoner Database, while Liu’s case has been added to USCIRF’s Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List. Both Zhou and Liu were charged with using heretical religious organizations to undermine the implementation of the law, an offense commonly used by the CCP to suppress freedom of religion. The Chinese regime officially recognizes five religions in China, but labels religions or beliefs that don’t comply with its control as heretical religious organizations or cults. The lack of judicial independence in China allows the CCP to suppress independent faiths as a political decision, undermining the right to freedom of belief.
Bilirakis stated that no person should be intimidated, forced from their homeland, or imprisoned because of their beliefs. He emphasized the importance of defending basic human rights and protecting the right to worship and freedom of belief worldwide.