H. Res. 605 

In the House of Representatives, U. S., 

March 16, 2010. 

Whereas Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992, which consists of 

spiritual, religious, and moral teachings for daily life, 

meditation, and exercise, based upon the principles of 

truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; 

Whereas according to the 2008 Annual Report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, ‘‘tens of millions of Chinese citizens practiced Falun Gong in the 

1990s and adherents to the spiritual movement inside of 

China are estimated to still number in the hundreds of 

thousands despite the government’s ongoing crackdown,’’ 

and other estimates published in Western press place the 

number of Falun Gong adherents currently in China at 

the tens of millions; 

Whereas in 1996, Falun Gong books were banned in China 

and state media began a campaign criticizing Falun 

Gong; 

Whereas in 1999, Chinese police began disrupting Falun 

Gong morning exercises in public parks and began 

searching the homes of Falun Gong practitioners; 

Whereas on April 25, 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside the State Council Office of Peti-
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tions in Beijing, next to the Communist Party leadership 

compound, to request that arrested Falun Gong practitioners be released, the ban on publication of Falun Gong 

books be lifted, and that Falun Gong practitioners be allowed to resume their activities without government interference; 

Whereas on the same day, immediately after then-Premier 

Zhu Rongji met with Falun Gong representatives in his 

office and agreed to the release of arrested practitioners, 

Communist Party Chairman Jiang Zemin criticized Zhu’s 

actions and ordered a crackdown on Falun Gong; 

Whereas in June 1999, Jiang Zemin ordered the creation of 

the 6-10 office, an extrajudicial security apparatus, given 

the mandate to ‘‘eradicate’’ Falun Gong; 

Whereas in July 1999, Chinese police began arresting leading 

Falun Gong practitioners; 

Whereas on July 22, 1999, Chinese state media began a 

major propaganda campaign to ban Falun Gong for ‘‘disturbing social order’’ and warning Chinese citizens that 

the practice of Falun Gong was forbidden; 

Whereas in October 1999, Party Chairman Jiang Zemin, according to western press articles, ‘‘ordered that Falun 

Gong be branded as a ‘cult’, and then demanded that a 

law be passed banning cults’’; 

Whereas Chinese authorities have devoted extensive time and 

resources over the past decade worldwide to distributing 

false propaganda claiming that Falun Gong is a suicidal 

and militant ‘‘evil cult’’ rather than a spiritual movement 

which draws upon traditional Chinese concepts of meditation and exercise; 
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Whereas on October 10, 2004, the House of Representatives 

adopted by voice vote House Concurrent Resolution 304, 

which had 75 bipartisan co-sponsors, titled ‘‘Expressing 

the sense of Congress regarding oppression by the Government of the People’s Republic of China of Falun Gong 

in the United States and in China,’’ and that the text of 

this resolution noted that ‘‘the Chinese Government has 

also attempted to silence the Falun Gong movement and 

Chinese prodemocracy groups inside the United States’’; 

Whereas, on October 18, 2005, highly respected human 

rights attorney Gao Zhisheng wrote a letter to Chinese 

Communist Party Chairman Hu Jintao and Premier Wen 

Jiabao calling for an end to the persecution of Falun 

Gong and Chinese authorities, in response, closed his law 

office and took away his law license, with Chinese security forces suspected of being directly involved in Mr. 

Gao’s disappearance on February 4, 2009; 

Whereas Gao Zhisheng’s family has subsequently been granted political asylum in the United States; 

Whereas the United Nations Committee Against Torture in 

its fourth periodic report of China, issued on December 

12, 2008, stated that ‘‘The State party should immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims that some Falun Gong practitioners 

have been subjected to torture and used for organ transplants and take measures, as appropriate, to ensure that 

those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and 

punished.’’; 

Whereas the Amnesty International 2008 annual report 

states that ‘‘Falun Gong practitioners were at particularly high risk of torture and other ill-treatment in detention * * * during the year 2007 over 100 Falun Gong 
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practitioners were reported to have died in detention or 

shortly after release as a result of torture, denial of food 

or medical treatment, and other forms of ill-treatment.’’; 

Whereas according to the 2008 Department of State’s 

Human Rights Report on China, ‘‘Some foreign observers 

estimated that Falun Gong adherents constituted at least 

half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in re-education through labor (RTL) camps, while Falun Gong 

sources overseas placed the number even higher.’’; 

Whereas according to the 2008 Annual Report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, ‘‘The (Chinese) central government intensified its nine-year campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in 

the months leading up to the 2008 Beijing Summer 

Olympic Games.’’; 

Whereas Falun Gong-related websites remain among the 

most systematically and hermetically blocked by China’s 

Internet firewall; and 

Whereas, according to an April 2009 New York Times report, 

‘‘In the past year, as many as 8,000 (Falun Gong) practitioners have been detained, according to experts on 

human rights, and at least 100 have died in custody’’: 

Now, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

(1) expresses sympathy to Falun Gong practitioners 

and their family members who have suffered persecution, 

intimidation, imprisonment, torture, and even death for 

the past decade solely because of adherence to their personal beliefs; 
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(2) calls upon the Government of the People’s Republic of China to immediately cease and desist from its 

campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison, and torture 

Falun Gong practitioners, to immediately abolish the 6- 

10 office, an extrajudicial security apparatus given the 

mandate to ‘‘eradicate’’ Falun Gong, and to immediately 

release Falun Gong practitioners, detained solely for 

their beliefs, from prisons and re-education through 

labor (RTL) camps, including those practitioners who 

are the relatives of United States citizens and permanent 

residents; and 

(3) calls upon the President and Members of Congress to mark the 11th anniversary of Chinese official 

repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement appropriately and effectively by publicly expressing solidarity 

with those practitioners in China persecuted solely because of their personal beliefs, and by meeting with 

Falun Gong practitioners whenever and wherever possible to indicate that support for freedom of conscience 

remains a fundamental principle of the United States 

Government. 

Attest: 

Clerk.