Rally in Support of Sen. Anderson’s SJR 10 Included Falun Gong Practitioners Who Escaped Torture in Chinese Prisons
Sacramento – Human Rights activists gathered at the State Capitol this morning to support Senator Anderson’s SJR 10 which condemns the Chinese Government’s human rights violations against Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) practitioners.
Anderson said, “It’s always been part of our California values to stand up against those who commit genocide. As people who recognize and cherish our fundamental freedoms and human rights, we Californians have a duty to call out the egregious state-sponsored violation of those rights in China and to support the non-violent resistance.”
Falun Dafa teaches truth, compassion, and forbearance that strengthens the physical and mental health through meditation. Due to fear of losing ideological control of Falun Dafa practitioners, the Communist government banned the practice in 1999 and Falun Dafa practitioners have since been subjects of persecution. Compelling evidence exists that Falun Dafa prisoners of conscience have been the source of the dramatic increase of organs for transplantation in China.
Four Falun Dafa practitioners spoke to the crowd and shared their experience with the brutality of the Chinese government. Three of them were imprisoned and routinely blood tested for possible organ harvesting. Yolanda Yao of Sunnyvale California shared her personal account: “I was illegally imprisoned in the Beijing Women’s Labor Camp for nearly two years, suffering from around-the-clock brainwashing sessions and unrelenting mental and physical torture.
“I was forced to sit in a child’s chair for over 10 hours every day. This caused my legs and feet to swell, eventually resulting in severe bruising and ulceration in my back and hips. I was also subjected to slave labor in summer temperatures surpassing 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and was once soaked in pesticide when the 70-pound barrel I was carrying on my back leaked.
“However, the most horrific thing I experienced and witnessed was that imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners, such as myself, were forced to have their blood tested at least three times a year. […] Our blood was being tested to evaluate us as potential candidates for forced organ harvesting.”
Yao’s parents have been imprisoned since 2015 for being Falun Dafa practitioners. She asked the public to help “bring an end to 18 years of unmitigated torture, killing, rape, mutilation, and most heinous of all—forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.”
Resolution co-author Assemblyman Randy Voepel (R-Santee), who Anderson referred to as “a strong champion of freedom around the world,” also attended the rally and spoke in support of the Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful resistance against the communist Chinese government.
