Statement of Congresswoman Barbara Lee: China's Persecution of the Falun Gong Must End

Barbara Lee, 9th District, California

Last week, the International Olympics Committee announced that the 2008 Olympics, one of the largest and most prestigious athletic events and cultural exchanges in the world, would be held in Beijing. If the Olympic torch is to be carried into Beijing, it must be carried into a country that respects fundamental human rights.

The Chinese government claims that it wants to be a full member of the family of nations yet it persecutes, jails, and tortures its own citizens. The Beijing government's campaign to wipe out the Falun Gong is a campaign against freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of belief.

This persecution must end. For that reason, I was proud to cosponsor Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's resolution expressing the sense of Congress that "the United States Government should use every appropriate public and private forum to urge the Government of the People's Republic of China" to release from detention all Falun Gong practitioners, to end its torture of all prisoners of conscience, and to abide by the International Covenant of Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I would like to use this public forum to reaffirm my commitment to human rights and to restate my strong opposition to China's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners as well as ethnic minorities and religious and political dissidents. I urge you to continue to be strong in the face of oppression and to remain steadfast in nonviolent resistance. As Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us: "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding, and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals."

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