TAIWAN - On June 8, 2004, 126 members of the Taiwan Legislative Yuan united across party lines to unanimously pass a resolution demanding that the Chinese government immediately release all arrested and detained Falun Gong practitioners and end the persecution of Falun Gong. The resolution was passed unanimously at 5:30 p.m. and was delivered to the Executive Yuan.

Taiwanese legislators Lin Cho Shui, Wang Zhueng Yu, and Chen Chien-ming proposed the resolution, which was co-sponsored by more than 36 legislators, and 126 legislators signed to support the resolution. According to Taiwanese law, only one legislator is required to propose a resolution, and 19 legislators are required to support a resolution for it to be voted on. More than half of the 220 legislators supported the resolution condemning the persecution of Falun Gong.

Taiwan legislator Chen Chien-ming (Sean Chao/Taipei Times)

Falun Gong, a traditional meditation and exercise practice, has been banned and violently suppressed in Mainland China, but flourishes in Taiwan, as well as in sixty nations round the world.

A small group within the Communist Chinese government, led by then-Chairman Jiang Zemin, began the persecution in July of 1999 after government surveys revealed the the number of people practicing Falun Gong far outstripped the registered membership of the Communist party, Driven by jealousy and fear, Jiang and his cohorts began a brutal campaign of arrest, torture, and murder, coupled with a worldwide propaganda effort designed to hide the truth of the persecution to avoid censure from the world’s governments.

Despite theis propaganda campaign, the facts of the persecution have leaked out,m and the international community has severely condemned this terrible violation of human rights. In November 1999, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed Resolution 218, demanding the Chinese government stop persecuting Falun Gong.

Mr. Christopher H. Smith, dean of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation, proposed Resolution 218, and 72 representatives co-signed to support the resolution, including Mr. Richard Gephardt, congressman from Missouri, and Mr. Trent Lott, Senate Majority Leader.

Later, human rights organizations in Canada, Australia, and Europe also published announcements and passed resolutions condemning the Chinese government's acts of state terrorism, and urged that it stop persecuting Falun Gong.

On July 24, 2002, the U.S. House passed House Concurrent Resolution 188, urging the Chinese government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairperson of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, initiated Resolution 188, and more than 100 representatives co-signed the resolution. It passed unanimously.

On June 8, 2004, Lin Cho Shui, a Taiwan legislator, said that freedom of belief is universal, and therefore Taiwanese residents' human rights should be protected while they are in Mainland China. Representatives from all parties in Taiwan acknowledged the purpose of this resolution because so many people co-signed and supported it. The Legislative Yuan urged the Taiwanese government to quickly request that Beijing release Falun Gong practitioners and cease the persecution.

Although Jiang's cadres cannot directly suppress Falun Gong in Taiwan, it collects the names of Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan. Political connections were used to detain and deport the [Taiwanese] practitioners when they tried to visit Mainland China and other countries. To date, at least 13 Falun Gong practitioners from Taiwan, including Wang Hsiu-hua and Lin Hsia-kai, were illegally arrested and detained; only ten have been released. One practitioner, Hsian Li-jie, was released on parole but forbidden to return to Taiwan, and two practitioners, Cheng Shi-hueng and Cheng Xi, are still being held. Their families have sought legal action unsuccessfully.

Lin Cho Shui said, "I believe the persecuted people will be encouraged by this news. Many governments in the world have already shown their support for persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, and the Taiwanese government is late in expressing its official concern, and in terms of legislative resolutions. Therefore, this will be a source of great encouragement for them."

Dr. Ming Chu-cheng, Professor in the Department of Political Science at Taiwan University, said that the resolution shows that the Taiwanese government is paying attention to the persecution, and is voicing its support for the practitioners, which also represents the Taiwanese people. Exposing persecution helps to end persecution, so exposing the Jiang group's crimes will help prevent it from committing greater evil. The case of Taiwan practitioner Lin Hsia-kai proves this point.

Hundreds of Taiwan Falun Gong practitioners practice at a Taipei park. (Patrick Lin/AFP/Getty Images)

While no membership records are kept, it is estimated that several hundred thousand Taiwanese practice Falun Gong. Mainland Chinese surveys place the number of practitioners in that country between seventy and one hundred million.

Several hundred thousand Mainland practitioners have been imprisoned in forced-labor camps without trial, several hundred thousand more have been expelled from school, fired from their jobs, and evicted from their residences. The exact figures of death due to torture are unknown, but believed to be in the tens of thousands.