Before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China this week, the U.S. State Department released a latest human rights report condemning the ongoing atrocities by the Chinese Communist authorities against Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and members of religious groups, accusing them of genocide and crimes against humanity.
On Monday, Blinken delivered a televised speech regarding the 2023 “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” issued by the U.S. State Department, which documented the human rights conditions in nearly 200 countries and territories worldwide in 2023.
In the report’s foreword, Blinken stated that the report “records the serious human rights violations that China (the CCP) continues to commit.”
Blinken pointed out in the foreword the continued severe human rights abuses by the CCP, stating, “For example, in Xinjiang, the Chinese authorities continue to commit genocide, crimes against humanity, forced labor, and other human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious group members, predominantly Muslims.”
The report released on Monday provided detailed accounts concerning China, including the detention of over one million people in re-education camps and prisons in Xinjiang since 2017 by the CCP, along with other atrocities perpetrated against a broader population in China, targeting political activists, religious and spiritual believers, particularly practitioners of Falun Gong, through illegal detention, torture, and other forms of persecution.
The report also highlighted some long-term imprisoned human rights lawyers and activists by the CCP, such as Gao Zhisheng, Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiashi, Yu Wensheng, writer Yang Maodong (pseudonym Guo Feixiong), Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, Rahile Dawut, Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Deyong, and many other political and conscience prisoners.
The report specifically mentioned the CCP’s practice of “forced organ harvesting,” stating that “some activists and organizations have accused the government of forcibly harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, including religious and spiritual believers such as Falun Gong practitioners and detained Muslims in Xinjiang.”
The report referenced articles from “The Epoch Times,” stating, “In August (last year), “The Epoch Times” reported on a doctor who agreed to publicly discuss the forced organ harvesting incident in Dalian, Liaoning Province in 1994, and a conversation in 2002 indicating Falun Gong practitioners as a specific organ source.”
Blinken is scheduled to visit China from April 24 (Wednesday) to 26. The topics of his trip include addressing U.S. concerns with China regarding human rights, unfair economic and trade practices, Chinese support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and security in the Indo-Pacific region.