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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, On May 3, 2021, thousands of people across the
3country celebrated World Falun Dafa Day; this marks the second
4anniversary of the celebration of one of the world's most
5popular meditation and cultivation practices; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Falun Dafa, also referred to as Falun Gong, is a
7peaceful spiritual practice rooted in the Buddhist tradition;
8it consists of moral teachings, a meditation, and four gentle
9exercises that are a truly unique and a highly effective way to
10improve health and energy levels; it is always taught free of
11charge by volunteers and can be practiced individually or in
12groups; and
 
13    WHEREAS, At the core of Falun Dafa are the values of
14truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; practitioners of
15Falun Dafa take these fundamental values to be a guide for
16daily life; and
 
17    WHEREAS, People who practice Falun Dafa often find it to
18be life-changing; many experience dramatic health benefits as
19well as newfound energy, mental clarity, stress relief, and
20spiritual awareness; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Falun Dafa was first taught in China in 1992 by Li

 

 

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1Hongzhi; he is a five time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and was
2nominated by the European Parliament for the Sakharov Prize
3for Freedom of Thought; he is also the recipient of Freedom
4House's International Religious Freedom Award; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Li Hongzhi's teachings spread quickly through
6word-of-mouth across China; by 1999, according to China's
7official estimates, 70 million to 100 million people were
8studying Falun Dafa; this amounted to approximately 1 in every
913 people in China; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Falun Dafa is now practiced in over 90 countries,
11and its teachings have been translated into over 40 languages;
12over one hundred million people worldwide have become
13healthier, happier, and more altruistic through their practice
14of Falun Dafa; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Although widely popular and openly celebrated by
16the Chinese government throughout the 1990s, China's then
17president Jiang Zemin launched a violent campaign against
18Falun Dafa in 1999; he feared Falun Dafa's exploding
19popularity and felt its emphasis on moral living and
20traditional Chinese culture were a threat to the atheist,
21communist regime; and
 
22    WHEREAS, A systematic campaign of abductions, torture, and

 

 

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1death targeting tens of millions of Falun Dafa practitioners
2was thus launched; over the past 20 years, several million
3people have been detained, hundreds of thousands have been
4tortured, thousand have been confirmed dead with the true
5number of deceased probably being much higher, and tens of
6thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, have been killed
7for their vital organs to fuel a booming organ transplantation
8business in China; and
 
9    WHEREAS, These atrocities have largely been hidden from
10view because for years the Chinese Communist Party has
11classified any information about human rights abuses against
12people who practice Falun Dafa as "state secrets"; and
 
13    WHEREAS, As the persecution continues, Falun Dafa
14practitioners have been consistent in refusing to adopt
15violence as an option; they instead focus on using every
16available peaceful avenue to have their voices heard; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Today, across China, there are 200,000 or more
18underground printing houses run by Falun Dafa practitioners;
19from their living rooms, they have established secure internet
20connections, accessed websites outside China by using proxy
21servers, downloaded censored literature on the persecution of
22Falun Dafa, and produced homemade leaflets; others volunteer
23distribute the literature, usually by night; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Collectively, this resistance movement, composed
2of bold individual acts in spite of great personal risks,
3constitutes what is probably today's largest nonviolent
4underground movement in the world; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Falun Dafa was first introduced to Illinois in
6the mid l990s; since then, volunteers have held free
7workshops, teaching programs, seminars, and group exercises
8throughout the state; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Falun Dafa practitioners actively participate in
10community events such as July 4th parades, Thanksgiving
11parades, Labor Day parades, summer festivals, and farmer's
12markets; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Falun Dafa practitioners have invited the world
14renowned Shen Yun Performing Arts Company to Illinois to
15entertain and to share the precious traditional culture and
16values of truthfulness, compassion, forbearance, and loyalty;
17and
 
18    WHEREAS, It is important for the State of Illinois to
19express clear and strong support for any person or group of
20people who are being unjustly persecuted for their beliefs;
21therefore, be it
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
2HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
3we declare the week of May 10 through May 16, 2021 as Falun
4Dafa Week in the State of Illinois.