Lawmaker, US Government Panel Call Attention to Chinese Citizens Sentenced for Their Faith

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A Republican lawmaker and U.S. government panel call attention to two Chinese citizens sentenced to prison as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong.

Zhou Deyong and Liu Aihua, both relatives of U.S. residents and victims of the regime’s suppression of freedom of belief, are now part of U.S. databases documenting prisoners of conscience in China.

“If we stay silent in the face of these transgressions, we do so at the peril of civil society. We must continue to apply pressure to force the CCP’s hand in granting its people fundamental human rights, including the right to worship,” Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), advocate for Zhou under the Defending Freedoms Project, told The Epoch Times.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline involving meditative exercises and moral teachings based on three core principles: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The practice gained popularity in China during the 1990s, with estimates putting the number of adherents at 70 million to 100 million.

The atheist communist regime, fearing the number of practitioners posed a threat to its authoritarian control, initiated a sweeping campaign on July 20, 1999, to eradicate the practice—a program that continues today. Since then, millions have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and other facilities, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

The Defending Freedoms Project—launched by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission along with U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and Amnesty International USA—seeks to highlight human rights abuses by advocating for prisoners of conscience around the globe.

Bilirakis—who has previously spoken out against the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners—has now chosen to advocate for Zhou’s freedom by adding his case to the database and sending a letter to Chinese officials demanding his “unconditional release.”

“The international community has an obligation to speak out on behalf of those whose voices, like Zhou’s, who have been silenced for far too long,” said Bilirakis, who is also a co-chairman of the International Religious Freedom Caucus in Congress.

“It is clear that the CCP is trying to make an example of Mr. Zhou for simply staying true to his faith,” he added.

Zhou, a geological engineer working for China’s second-largest oil field, was handed an eight-year jail term on April 20 along with a 100,000 yuan (about $14,506) fine, following two years of detention, during which his wife and son in Florida had little information about his well-being. His wife and son both practice Falun Gong.

He was initially detained in Shandong Province in April 2021. His house was raided, where the authorities found Falun Gong-related materials that allegedly belonged to his wife, who had also been detained in China for her belief.

Zhou’s case is now featured in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Political Prisoner Database.

Liu Aihua, 69, was sentenced to four years in prison for distributing and possessing Falun Gong-related materials. Before that, she had undergone 11 arrests and spent about eight years in various detention facilities.

Her case was recently added to the USCIRF’s Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List. This database records victims of imprisonment, detainment, disappearance, torture, house arrest, and forced renunciation of faith around the world.

Liu’s family has been barred from visiting her since July 2022, with no information about her well-being. Her husband—who also practiced Falun Gong—died in 2009 due to a kidney failure resulting from years of torture while detained in a Chinese prison because of his faith.

Liu Aihua, in Liuzhou city, Guangxi Province, China, in 2007. Liu was sentenced to four years in prison in China for her faith in March 2023. (Courtesy of Steven Wang)

Zhou and Liu were charged with “using heretical religious organizations to undermine the implementation of the law” (Article 300 of Chinese Criminal Law)—an offense the CCP routinely uses to suppress freedom of religion.

Under the CCP’s rule, five religions are officially recognized in China: Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam. Seven state-controlled organizations officially preside over these religious communities, ensuring they are “patriotic” and “politically loyal to the CCP.”

The Chinese regime uses the term “heretical religious organizations”—often translated as “cults”— to stigmatize and persecute religions or beliefs that do not succumb to the CCP’s control. This label, plus the lack of specificity of the offense “undermining the implementation of the law,” puts freedom of belief in a position of extreme vulnerability.

Furthermore, the Chinese regime lacks mechanisms to ensure judicial independence, as the rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, creates and supervises the judiciary (Article 3 of the Chinese Constitution) and appoints judges, who are often former Party members.

These factors allow the CCP to suppress independent faiths as a political decision, turning the right to freedom of belief into an illusion.

When asked about this topic, Bilirakis said: “No person should ever be intimidated, forced from their ancestral homeland, imprisoned, or murdered because of their beliefs.

“The United States and our allies must send a strong and unwavering message in defense of basic human rights and protections for all people. The right to worship and freedom of belief must be protected throughout the globe.”

Sherry Dong and Eva Fu contributed to this report.