SJR 10: Falun Gong.

This measure would express the Legislatures support for for, and condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of, Falun Gong practitioners in China, practitioners, as specified. The measure would also urge the government of the Peoples Republic of China to immediately end the persecution of, and forced organ harvesting from, Falun Gong practitioners, and urge the President of the United States to undertake an investigation into organ transplant practices in the Peoples Republic of China. urge the President and the Congress of the United States to condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

This measure would express the Legislatures support for Falun Gong practitioners in China, as specified. The measure would also urge the government of the Peoples Republic of China to immediately end the persecution of, and forced organ harvesting from, Falun Gong practitioners, and urge the President of the United States to undertake an investigation into organ transplant practices in the Peoples Republic of China.

WHEREAS, Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice involving meditative qigong exercises and is centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; and

WHEREAS, Falun Gong became immensely popular in China in the 1990s, and by early 1999, according to the New York Times, the Chinese government estimated that more than 70 million Chinese practiced Falun Gong; and

WHEREAS, Falun Gong is now practiced around the world, including many practitioners in California, and practitioners have been steadfast in demanding the safeguarding of their human rights and dignity through nonviolent means; and

WHEREAS, The United States House of Representatives passed House Resolution 343 in June 2016, expressing concern regarding reports of nonconsenting organ removal from prisoners of conscience; and

WHEREAS, Between 3,000 and 4,000 practitioners of Falun Gong marched on Market Street in San Francisco on October 25, 2016, to raise awareness of the alleged mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in China; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature expresses support for Falun Gong practitioners 18-year nonviolent resistance against persecution, which exemplifies uncompromising courage and human spirit; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature condemns any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the Peoples Republic of China or elsewhere; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature urges the President and the Congress of the United States to condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the Peoples Republic of China or elsewhere; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

WHEREAS, Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice involving meditative qigong exercises and is centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Falun Gong became immensely popular in China in the 1990s, and by early 1999, the Chinese government estimated that more than 70 million Chinese from all walks of life practiced Falun Gong; and

WHEREAS, The head investigator of the National Sports Commission of China declared in October 1998, Were convinced the exercises and effects of Falun Gong are excellent. It has done an extraordinary amount to improve societys stability and ethics. This should be duly affirmed. Another investigation by senior members of the National Peoples Congress concluded, Falun Gong has hundreds of benefits for the Chinese people and nation, and does not a bit of harm; and

WHEREAS, Despite the constitutional guarantees of freedoms of speech, association, demonstration, and religion, the Chinese Communist Party, which has a paranoid fear of spiritual believers and considers maintaining absolute control over the people its highest priority, launched a massive persecution to eradicate Falun Gong in July 1999; and

WHEREAS, On January 23, 2001, China Central Television sent footage of an alleged Falun Gong self-immolation on Tiananmen Square to international news agencies, which was broadcast nonstop on Chinese state media for several months. In August 2001, at the 53rd session of the United Nations Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, International Educational Development announced that the self-immolation was staged by the Chinese Communist Party to defame Falun Gong and manipulate public opinion to justify the persecution; and

WHEREAS, The Chinese Communist Party has been using the government to carry out the persecution and defamation of Falun Gong in all segments of Chinese society, and has extended the campaign internationally through its consulates and overseas student organizations, and by influencing western media, business, and government entities; and

WHEREAS, Millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been wrongfully incarcerated, physically and mentally tortured, injected with nerve-damaging drugs, forced to do long hours of labor, and deprived of sleep, food, and basic hygiene. A large, but unknown, number have died from torture and abuse in detention, and through state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting; and

WHEREAS, According to United Nations reports, 66 percent of claimed torture victims in China are incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners, and the Falun Dafa Information Center has documented 4,112 deaths and 87,000 cases of torture as of July 2017; and

WHEREAS, Chinas organ transplant business experienced a sudden boom after 2000, with annual organ transplant cases increasing by 300 percent between 1999 and 2004, according to Huang Jiefu, director of the China Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and former vice minister of health. He Xiaoshun, vice president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, stated in 2010, the year 2000 was a watershed for the organ transplant industry in China...the number of liver transplants in 2000 is 10 times that of 1999. In 2005, the number tripled; and

WHEREAS, This transplantation growth, without an organ donation program, corresponds with the persecution of Falun Gong, and continued as the persecution intensified. Yet, the Chinese government has not provided any explanation for the sudden increase of transplants, the short wait times of one to four weeks for kidney and liver transplants, and the advance scheduling of transplantation surgeries for foreign organ recipients; and

WHEREAS, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) has raised concerns about systematic, widespread, and repeated medical exams and blood testing of detained Falun Gong prisoners; and

WHEREAS, Canadian researchers David Matas, a human rights attorney, and David Kilgour, a former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, conducted an investigation into allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in 2006. They concluded that the allegations were true, and that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners had been killed for their organs; and

WHEREAS, David Matas, David Kilgour, and investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann published a report in June 2016 that exposed a vast Chinese network of prisons and hospitals and provided a tally of more than 700 transplant centers, including bed numbers, surgical staff, training programs, new infrastructure, use of antirejection drugs, and advertised transplant numbers, during a period when no public organ donation program existed in China; and

WHEREAS, DAFOH highlighted the discrepancy between the steeply increasing annual transplant numbers between 1999 and 2004, which reached a plateau for the next 10 years, while all other evidence of transplant infrastructure in China continued to show tremendous growth and expansion; and

WHEREAS, The Chinese Communist Party has never admitted to state-sponsored organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, nor has it announced that it will end this practice; and

WHEREAS, Israel, Taiwan, and Italy have passed laws to criminalize unethical organ harvesting and restrict their citizens from traveling to China for transplant surgery, since the exposure of forced organ harvesting in China; and

WHEREAS, In June 2016, the United States House of Representatives unanimously passed House Resolution 343, which condemned state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting in China, called on China to end the practice of harvesting organs from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience, and demanded an end to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners; and

WHEREAS, In September 2016, the European Parliament passed Written Declaration 48 to condemn forced organ harvesting in China; and

WHEREAS, On July 13, 2017, the United States Senate introduced Senate Resolution 220, which expresses solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners who have lost their lives, freedoms, and rights for adhering to their beliefs and practices and condemns the practice of forced organ harvesting; and

WHEREAS, In September 2012 and June 2016, experts testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs that patients in the United States continue to travel to China for organ transplants, and that the medical community continues to cooperate with and train Chinese surgeons, providing the possibility that they indirectly aid abusive practices; and

WHEREAS, United States citizens might seek to receive organ transplants in China, but given the lack of traceability and transparency in China, there is no absolute guarantee the organ donor is not an arbitrary victim of forced organ harvesting on demand; and

WHEREAS, The killing of religious or political prisoners for the purpose of selling their organs for transplant is an egregious and intolerable violation of the fundamental right to live; and

WHEREAS, Despite being brutally persecuted in China, Falun Gong is now practiced in more than 100 countries, and practitioners around the world have been steadfast to demand the safeguarding of their human rights and human dignity through nonviolent means; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature expresses support for Falun Gong practitioners 18-year nonviolent resistence to their persecution in China, which exemplifies uncompromising courage and human spirit; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature calls upon the government of the Peoples Republic of China to immediately end the persecution of Falun Gong and to end the dehumanization of Falun Gong practitioners, which have led to unethical organ procurement practices, known as forced organ harvesting; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature calls upon the government of the Peoples Republic of China to immediately end the practice of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature calls upon the President of the United States to undertake a full and transparent investigation by the United States Department of State into organ transplant practices in the Peoples Republic of China, and to prosecute those found to have engaged in such unethical practices; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature will take measures to ban entry of those who have participated in illegal removal of human tissues and organs, and seek prosecution of such individuals should they be found in California; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, to the Chinese ambassador to the United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, Chair

2017-2018 Regular Session

Bill No: SJR 10 (Author:Anderson)

Version: July 20, 2017

Hearing Date: August 29, 2017

Fiscal: No

Urgency: No

Consultant: MS

SUBJECT

Falun Gong

DESCRIPTION

This Senate Joint Resolution, as proposed to be amended, would express the Legislature’s support for Falun Gong practitioners and would condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or elsewhere. Additionally, this measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the PRC or elsewhere.

BACKGROUND

Falun Gong, sometimes referred to as Falun Dafa, is a Chinese spiritual practice founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992. Practitioners look to Falun Gong for its combination of qigong, a number of practices involving meditation, slow moving exercises and regulated breathing, with spiritual and moral teachings. (Griffiths, Why China Fears the Falun Gong, Public Radio International (July 14, 2014) <https://www.pri.org/ stories/2014-07-14/why-china-fears-falun-gong> [as of August 21, 2017]; “Changing the Soup but not the Medicine: Abolishing Re-Education through Labour in China,” Amnesty International (2013) <https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA17/ 042 /2013/en/> [as of August 25, 2017].) Through this practice, practitioners work to cultivate their moral character by improving their “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.” (Id.)

Many outside of China view the current state of Falun Gong in the PRC as a violation of the right to freedom of religion. For example, in December of 1999, President Clinton called on China to halt its suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. This call was reiterated by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, who thanked then President Clinton for his support of religious freedom, noting that suppression of Falun Gong paralleled that of Tibetan Buddhists, Muslim Uighurs, and Chinese Christians. (Saperstein, Message to China: Make Peace with Falun Gong (Dec. 9, 1999) <http://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/press-releases/message-china-make-peace-falun-gong> [as of August 21, 2017].)

It is alleged that government officials first ordered the arrest of Falun Gong practitioners in the PRC following a series of peaceful demonstrations held in the late spring of 1999. An alleged 5,000 to 6,000 practitioners were arrested within the first few days of the claimed government crackdown. (Greenlee, Michael J. (2006) “A King Who Devours His People: Jiang Zemin and the Falun Gong Crackdown: A Bibliography,” International Journal of Legal Information: Vol. 34: Iss. 3, Article 9, p. 563.)

It is claimed that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were administratively detained without trial and subjected to “re-education through labor.” (Greenlee, Michael J. (2006) “A King Who Devours His People: Jiang Zemin and the Falun Gong Crackdown: A Bibliography,” International Journal of Legal Information: Vol. 34: Iss. 3, Article 9, p. 563.) Reports of abuse and torture have been made since these arrests began. The U.S. State Department estimates that between 1999 and 2005 several hundred to a few thousand Falun Gong practitioners have died in custody due to torture, abuse, and neglect. (U.S. Dept. State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, & Labor, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2005: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) Sec. 1(c) (May 8, 2006) <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt /2005/61605.htm> [as of August 21, 2017].)

The measure before this Committee, as proposed to be amended, would express support for Falun Gong practitioners in China, and would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the PRC or elsewhere.

CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW

This measure would make the following statements:

• Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice involving meditative “qigong” exercises and is centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance;
• Falun Gong became immensely popular in China in the 1990s, and by early 1999, according to the New York Times, the Chinese government estimated that more than 70 million Chinese practiced Falun Gong;
• Falun Gong is now practiced around the world, including many practitioners in California, and practitioners have been steadfast in demanding the safeguarding of their human rights and dignity through nonviolent means; and
• Between 3,000 and 4,000 practitioners of Falun Gong marched on Market Street in San Francisco on October 25, 2016, to raise awareness of the alleged mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in China.

This measure would declare the California Legislature:

• Expresses support for Falun Gong practitioners’ 18-year nonviolent resistance against persecution which exemplifies uncompromising courage and human spirit;
• Condemns any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the People’s Republic of China or elsewhere; and
• Urges the President and the Congress of the United States to condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the People’s Republic of China or elsewhere.

COMMENT

1. Stated need for this bill

According to the Author:

With the passage of SJR 10, the great state of California will join the ever-growing number of international and regional governmental and legislative bodies addressing this humanitarian crisis. In addition to calling our state and national government to action, this resolution is meant to raise awareness about what we, and many, believe to be one of the greatest violations of medical ethics modernly - the forced organ harvesting of non-consenting prisoners of conscience resulting in the killing of the organ “donors”. SJR-10 is a way to support our American value to freedom of belief and bring awareness to the heinous crime of forced organ harvesting that is taking place in China.

1. Recognition of Human Rights in California

Since its founding in 1850, the State of California has recognized that all people, by their nature, have certain unalienable rights. California’s current Constitution, adopted by the people in 1879, recognized, among others, the right of “every citizen [to] freely speak, write and publish his [or her] sentiments, on all subjects,” to the “free exercise and enjoyment of religion,” and “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable seizures and searches.” (See Cal. Const. of 1879, art. I, Secs. 4, 9, and 19.) Since that time, California has continuously expanded its understanding of the rights held by its citizens to include such things as “pursuing and obtaining . . . privacy,” and “the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business.” (See Cal. Const., art. I, Secs. 1, and 3.)

California’s statutory law is similarly replete with provisions recognizing the inherent rights of its residents. The Unruh Civil Rights Act, for example, states that:

All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, or sexual orientation are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever. (Civ. Code Sec. 51.)

The Ralph Civil Rights Act provides that all persons within the jurisdiction of the state have the right to be free from any violence, or intimidation by threat of violence, committed against their persons or property because of personal or other characteristics or statuses, such as political affiliation, sex, race, color, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, or position in a labor dispute. (Civ. Code Sec. 51.7.) Similarly, the Bane Civil Rights Act provides remedies against those who interfere by threat, intimidation, or coercion, with the exercise or enjoyment of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or of the rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the State of California. (Civ. Code Sec. 52.1.)

1. Amendments

To ensure this measure only contains verifiable information, the following amendments are proposed.

Proposed amendments:

Strike pages 1 through 5 and insert the following:

WHEREAS, Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice involving meditative “qigong” exercises and is centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; and

WHEREAS, Falun Gong became immensely popular in China in the 1990s, and by early 1999, according to the New York Times, the Chinese government estimated that more than 70 million Chinese practiced Falun Gong; and

WHEREAS, Falun Gong is now practiced around the world, including many practitioners in California, and practitioners have been steadfast in demanding the safeguarding of their human rights and dignity through nonviolent means; and

WHEREAS, Between 3,000 and 4,000 practitioners of Falun Gong marched on Market Street in San Francisco on October 25, 2016, to raise awareness of the alleged mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in China; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature expresses support for Falun Gong practitioners’ 18-year nonviolent resistance against persecution which exemplifies uncompromising courage and human spirit; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature condemns any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the People’s Republic of China or elsewhere; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature urges the President and the Congress of the United States to condemn any government-sanctioned persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the People’s Republic of China or elsewhere; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

Support: Chinese American Council of Sacramento; Falun Dafa Activities in Northern California; U.S. Southwestern Falun Dafa Association

Opposition: None Known

HISTORY

Source: NGO Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting; Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting

Related Pending Legislation: None Known

Prior Legislation: None Known

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