WASHINGTON, DC, (CWNews.com) - A US human rights organization recognized other groups for defending religious rights in China on Wednesday.
The US Freedom House gave the International Religious Freedom Award to The Cardinal Kung Foundation, Friends of the Christian Unregistered Churches, the International Campaign for Tibet, the Uighur-American Association, and the Falun Dafa (Gong) Association. "There can scarcely be a more timely subject than religious freedom in China. There is no religious freedom there, only religious persecution," Sen. Jesse Helms, R-North Carolina, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the ceremony.
The Falun Gong spiritualist movement has been the focus of Communist repression over the past 19 months and has sparked renewed international attention on abuse of religious freedom in China. Helms said the award was also timely considering that the International Olympic Committee is due to decide in July whether to award the 2008 Games to Beijing.
Erping Zhang, accepting the award to the Falun Dafa (Gong) Association on behalf of founder Li Hongzhi, read out a statement from Li. "Numerous people have been able to attain good health (from the practice of Falun Gong) and along the way, it has helped people improve their moral standard. All of this has seriously threatened the wicked nature of the party," Li said. "This is the real reason why Falun Gong is persecuted in China. The goodness has challenged the evil's nature," he said.