Falun Gong Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Georgia, for yielding, and I thank my colleagues for their support of the bill. It is amazing, and it is very frightening that in 2024 we are having this discussion on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Since the early 1990s, the Falun Gong has been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party. The Falun Gong is a spiritual practice of mind and body in which adherents follow the core principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.

In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party estimated that 70 to 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong, the equivalent of 5 to 7 percent of the Chinese population today. Mr. Speaker, Falun Gong's popularity quickly initiated violent persecution, including illegal detentions, forced labor, torture, and, yes, forced organ harvesting, which is a form of mass murder.

This is something out of the thirties and Josef Mengele, but it is happening today.

On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party detained hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and banned any further practice of this religion. Since this date, the Chinese Communist Party has continued to escalate its systematic oppression against Falun Gong practitioners.

On March 1, 2020, the Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China found there to be an incomprehensible gap between the number of transplant operations carried out in the People's Republic of China in comparison to the number of eligible registered donors.

What does that mean?

That means in China, Mr. Speaker, if you have got the money, then there is no waiting list for you to get an organ. Go anywhere else in the civilized world and find that.

What would that mean?

That means there is a ready supply of these organs, because there is.

Now their report concluded that forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners have been and probably are the main source of organs for forced organ harvesting.

In the U.S., many of those working in organ transplantation and those who benefit from transplantation systems are likely unaware. They just don't know of China's illegal practices.

Through its repressive control of information, the CCP has created the infrastructure and resources needed to persecute millions of its own citizens, not only Falun Gong practitioners, but also Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christians, and any other the Chinese Communist Party chooses to target.

This bill is the first binding commitment by Congress to take strong legal action against the persecution and the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong, making Falun Gong the centerpiece of legislation, an action long overdue after 25 years.

The Falun Gong Protection Act imposes sanctions on those who participate in or facilitate the forced harvesting of organs in China. This bill directs the Secretary of State to determine whether the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong constitutes crimes against humanity or genocide alongside a required report on the CCP's organ transplant policies and practices.

The Communist Party of China doesn't want us to see this. When you take a trip to China, Mr. Speaker, and see all the wonderful things and the wonderful people there, they are not going to invite you to see this. It is going to take us looking. It is going to take us focusing on it.

Additionally, H.R. 4132 makes it U.S. policy to avoid any cooperation with the People's Republic of China in the illicit organ transplant industry.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this bill, and I thank my friends on both sides of the aisle for their support.

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