(Minghui.og) It has been 26 years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. This year several political leaders, including members of Congress, spoke out on July 17 to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong, especially the transnational repression of Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun Performing Arts on U.S. soil.

Senate Sponsor of the Falun Gong Protection Act: There is Power in Truth

On July 17, 2025, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas accepted an exclusive interview in the Senate Office Building. (Minghui.org)

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is a member of the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and the Judiciary. He introduced the Falun Gong Protection Act to the Senate on March 3, 2025.

On July 17, 2025, Senator Cruz accepted an exclusive interview in the Senate Office Building. He said, “The Chinese Communist Party engages in murder, and engages in torture. It runs concentration camps. It persecutes dissidents. The Falun Gong, they are a religious minority who are targeted, they are rounded up, and they are subjected to horrific practices including organ harvesting. They literally capture practitioners of Falun Gong, they remove their organs, and then they provide [the organs] as either transplants to other Chinese nationals or they [offer] the organs on the black market to be trafficked overseas. These are grotesque and utterly inhuman practices.

“And this law very simply would impose sanctions on anyone engaged in organ harvesting of the Falun Gong. And it’s a simple, common-sense proposition. My legislation passed the house by voice vote, without a single recorded objection. That’s a very positive sign. We need to move it through the Senate.

“I need to keep pressing it. And we need to speak with one clear voice against the evil that is perpetrated by Chinese Communist Party.

“There is power in sunlight and truth for exposing their evil practices,” said Senator Cruz.

Senior Representative: Time to Stop Transnational Suppression

The Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, a group that helps Chinese people quit the CCP, held a forum on Capitol Hill on July 17, 2025 to discuss how to safeguard freedom and counter the CCP’s transnational repression. Several members of Congress and political figures joined the forum to show their support for the practitioners’ decades long effort to end the persecution.

Republican Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey spoke during the forum on Capitol Hill on July 17, 2025.

Republican Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey is a senior member of Congress and co-chairman of Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Rep. Smith said, “The transnational repression is bad and is getting worse. Its about time we step up to the plate and do far more than what we have been doing.”

He said that the CCP has stretched its long arm into the U.S. to hurt and persecute Americans, “Shen Yun has been attacked [on U.S. soil] so many times, including bomb threats, going back to 2006 when it first began. Even right here in Washington D.C.

“There are no boundaries to what this dictatorship would do, anywhere and everywhere. We’ve got to stand boldly against it.”

Rep. Smith and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced the Transnational Repression Policy Act to the House and the Senate. The bill requires the U.S. President to impose sanctions such as freezing assets and restricting entry for certain foreign individuals and entities that are directly involved in transnational repression. Multiple government agencies will act simultaneously to stop the transnational repression taking place in the United States and around the world.

Rep. Smith said that Falun Gong has won bi-partisan support in the House of Representatives and the Senate, “We will do more and we will keep fighting until Falun Gong and people in China are free, and when that day comes, you will be remembered as the heroes that made it happen.”

House Sponsor of the Falun Gong Protection Act: Transnational Repression of Falun Gong and Shen Yun Is Unacceptable

Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania addressed the forum on Capitol Hill on July 17, 2025.

Republican Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania called China a transnational criminal organization at the forum, and said that those who take part in the CCP’s transnational repression will face sanctions, prison time, or deportation.

Rep. Perry is a sponsor of the Falun Gong Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. He said that practitioners are very brave, “Because I know those of you who live in America are the target of the CCP.”

Rep. Perry said, “[The CCP] is a criminal organization that terrorizes people, that tortures people, and that murders people for the things that they believe. This is unacceptable in America, it is unacceptable in society, and it’s about time that the United States of America lead the world and start breaking ties with the Communist Party of China until they either right their ways or there is a change in leadership in China. That’s what must happen.

Rep. Perry said that the CCP not only commits crimes against people in China, it is also an international criminal organization that is carrying out a series of threats to Falun Gong practitioners on American soil.

He said that the CCP’s threats to Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts are completely unacceptable. “These people that come from the Communist Party of China to America to impose their will on us must know that if they do that, if they engage in any of that, they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. That is the remedy to those kind of things.

“We have worked, just as Representative Smith has, to push for the Falun Gong Protection Act to make sure that there are penalties in America, where we do have jurisdiction, to make sure that the intimidation, the bomb threats, the threats to individuals for practicing their faith, that people go to prison for that. But also for people internationally that have ties to America that participate in any of that, including the organ harvesting, would get captured by the long arm of the American law and spend time in prison in America.

“Evil is ever-present, evil never stops, evil never sleeps. So you must be diligent, you must be committed, and you must never stop as well. We must fight for our God-given rights every single day to preserve them and to expand them around the globe.”

Former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom: CCP Fears Falun Gong the Most

Sam Brownback, former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, addressed the forum through a video conference on Capitol Hill on July 17, 2025.

Sam Brownback, former Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, said through a live video conference, “I’ve worked for Falun Gong people for 20 or 25 years now in different capacities, and the Chinese Communist Party just loathes this group, and they treat them worse than anybody.

“And that’s really saying something because the CCP treats all religions poorly. But I think what it amounts to, is that they fear Falun Gong the most. The greatest threat to the CCP is religion and the religion that is the most natural to the Chinese people is Falun Gong.

“Falun Gong is very natural to the Chinese mentality and the Chinese heart, and I think that’s why the Chinese Communist Party so fears and does everything it possibly can to stomp out this faith. They won’t get it done because it’s a physical man attacking a spiritual entity; it’s the kingdom of man against the kingdom of God.”

He stressed that the American government must protect religious freedom. “Particularly in China we need to be supportive of the Falun Gong movement and of all faiths … particularly Falun Gong because they are of incredible importance to change in China – getting it back to be the cultural beauty and free society. They are not just China’s hope but a great contributor to the world.”

He called the CCP, “The most oppressive regime in the world today and the one that’s killed more of its own people than any regime in the history of mankind.”

Brownback suggested, “To get Secretary Rubio and Vice President Vance and President Trump to meet Falun Gong practitioners and the people who’ve been persecuted. I think our top leadership need to be meeting with Falun Gong and broadcast that around the world and in China particularly, showing our support for them … this can change the mentality in China.”

Former Assistant Secretary of State: Honor to Save a Falun Gong Practitioner

Professor Robert Destro, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, spoke at the forum at the U.S. Capitol Hill on July 17.

Professor Robert Destro, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, recalled his experience and the great resistance he encountered when he helped rescue Mr. Cheng Peiming. Mr. Cheng is a Falun Gong practitioner and a survivor of live organ harvesting. Part of his lungs and liver were removed before he escaped China.

Professor Destro said, “[In China] you are all commodities, this is a chop shop we are talking about. You are actually worth more in pieces than you are as a person.

“It really is a horrific situation. I am honored to have been able to use whatever authority I had to get him out.”

Mr. Cheng Peiming recounted his experience of being subjected to live organ harvesting in a prison in China. He said that he was just one of the many Falun Gong practitioners whose organs were stolen by the CCP. Mr. Cheng thanked the U.S. government and U.S. officials for bringing him to the United States.

Chinese People Quit the CCP on Capitol Hill

At the forum held on July 17, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol Hill, political figures and dignitaries are photographed with Chinese people who have quit the CCP, Youth League, and Young Pioneers.

At the forum, eight Chinese people publicly announced their withdrawal from the Communist Party of China, the Youth League, and the Young Pioneers using their real names.

Dr. Wang Zhiyuan, chair of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, said, “One needs courage and wisdom to quit the CCP, the Youth League, and the Young Pioneers. Many people quit the CCP not for power or profit but because they could no longer stand to be associated with an organization that committed the heinous crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.”

Dr. Wang said that quitting the CCP is a movement of moral awakening. Currently there are close to 450 million people who have quit the CCP and its organizations.

Gong Kai, a Chinese who announced his withdrawal from the CCP on Capitol Hill, thanked practitioners for their decades of efforts. “Falun Gong practitioners were the first to develop software such as Freegate that can bypass the CCP’s firewall. The software allows the Chinese people to see the evil side of the CCP so that they can cut ties with the devil and eventually disintegrate this evil spirit. Practitioners bring light and hope to people.”