In China, freedom of religion doesn’t exist.
Despite the fact that Communist Chinese promote a message of atheism, there are 350 million religious believers in China today, made up of Chinese Buddhist, followed by Protestants, Muslim, Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) practitioners, Catholics, and Tibetan Buddhist.

The problem is that China does not allow its people to have their own beliefs. When they do, they suffer persecution and are forced to give up on their beliefs.
One such religious minority group that is persecuted is called the Falun Dafa practitioners.

Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) originated in China in 1992. It is an advanced practice of self-cultivation based on the Buddha School of teachings, founded by Mr. Li Hongzhi, the practice’s master. It is a cultivation practice based on the universal principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Over 100 million people now practise it in over 100 countries.

The Cultural Revolution, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) destroyed most of China’s rich five thousand years history, including its traditional faiths and values. After Falun Dafa’s introduction in 1992, by 1998, up to 100 million people were practicing.

This then caught the attention of former dictator Jiang Zemin. He became fearful and jealous of Falun Dafa’s rapid growth and increasing popularity in such a short time. Therefore, he decided to crack down on the group in July 1999.

There was a story about a Falun Dafa practitioner called Gao Rongrong who was persecuted to death; the tragedy of Gao Rongrong’s death is heartbreaking. Gao Rongrong is a practitioner from Liaoning Province; she suffered seven hours of torture at the hands of officials who disfigured her face. She died in custody on June 16, 2005 at the China Medical University.

There are still many Falun Dafa practitioners who are currently being held in forced labour camps, prisons and detention centres. Prison guards uses all different ways to torture them, prison guards are ordered to force practitioners to renounce their beliefs. However, if they do not, they will suffer relentless beatings and torture, often resulting in death.

Jiang Zemin’s regime tries to eradicate Falun Gong with the means of state-run terrorism: brainwashing, physical torture, psychiatric abuse, and killing. Thousands of Falun Dafa practitioners have been tortured to death.
In 2006, Falun Dafa practitioners were killed for their organs, a process called organ harvesting, because they know that Falun Dafa practitioners have healthy bodies. The organs were then sold and transplanted for an enormous profit in the transplant trade.

My own parents were persecuted for practicing Falun Dafa. My dad was put in prison for three years. My dad got put in prison in 19th of July, 2000. Prison guards used many ways such as electric batons, violent assault, corporal punishment, stand in an oval without moving for a day, separated from other people, limited times to use the bathroom, to persecute you in order to make you stop practicing Falun Dafa.

‘I am very lucky that I escaped from China and came to Australia,’ he said. ‘However, the persecution has not stopped, it is still happening in China today.’
My mum suffered for her faith by being put in a Brainwashing centre for 9 months. Inside they force practitioners to do work, using electric batons to hurt them and did not allow the practitioners to sleep, so they would stop practicing Falun Dafa.

I would like everyone to know about this persecution going on in China, because I believe that everyone should have the right to be religious. You can help by spreading the word, join a petition, and help bring Jiang Zemin to justice. Therefore, we can stop this persecution together.