State Department Calls on CCP to End Campaign to Eradicate Falun Gong

The State Department has called on Beijing to end its eradication campaign against Falun Gong ahead of July 20, the date that marked the start of the persecution in 1999. “For over 26 years, the CCP has waged a campaign of repression against practitioners of Falun Gong and their families,” a department spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “We again call on the CCP to end its campaign to eradicate Falun Gong.” An estimated 70 million to 100 million people practiced Falun Gong in China by the late 1990s, with many crediting the practice’s values and meditative exercises with helping them become  better, healthier people. The regime, initially supportive, took the practice’s popularity as a threat to its power. On July 20, 1999, it launched a national persecution, using forced labor, torture, and other forms of torment to force practitioners to give up the faith....