Falun Gong practitioners had their voices heard as they work to raise awareness of forced organ harvesting in China.
Two practitioners of Falun Gong–a religious movement founded in China in the 1990s and now banned by the country’s government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spoke at the Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday.
Forced organ harvesting by the CCP continues to be a problem in China, and Falun Gong practitioners and Uighur Muslims are the victims of the CCP’s efforts to commit genocide.
The practice has led to instances of elderly U.S. residents traveling to China to get fast-tracked organ transplants.
“The terminally ill are told if they come to China, they don’t have to wait months for an organ transplant,” said Jim Gerigosian of Catharpin. “They just don’t tell us where the organs are coming from.”
The practice of organ harvesting gets little news coverage in the U.S. Falon Gong practitioners in Prince William County met with three Board of County Supervisors members to educate them on the practice.
Following that meeting, Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega issued a proclamation warning county residents of the risks of traveling to China and to print them from becoming accomplices of the CCP’s practice of harvesting organs from political prisoners.
“Extensive and credible reports have revealed the mass killing of prisoners of conscience in the People’s Republic of China,” the resolution states.
Lien Pham, a Falun Gong practitioner of Woodbridge, also thanked Supervisors Margaret Franklin and Victor Angry for listening to their concerns.
“Very few Prince William residents have heard of this issue,” she said.
There are many former CCP prisoners in Virginia, all with horrific stories to tell, added Pham.
In addition to removing their organs, the CCP subjects prisoners to regularly forced x-rays, sonograms, and blood tests to determine organ compatibility, she added.
The CCP began its crackdown on Falun Gong in 1999 when it started a propaganda campaign to eradicate the practice after it viewed it as a threat due to its spiritual teachings.
More than 70 million Falun Gong practitioners across the U.S. aim to gain s through exercise and meditation. After fleeing the CCP, the religion is now based in New York.
Two successful media properties, The Epoch Times and NTD (New Tang Dynasty), have sprung up in the U.S. in recent years, both supported by Falun Gong.
