California bows to communist China pressure to halt a resolution on human rights

Democrat politicians in California have no hesitation about speaking “truth” to power when it comes to their opposition to the policies of President Trump. When it comes to the communist dictatorship of China, apparently not so much.

The state legislature, which is firmly in the grip of far-left Democrats, sidelined a resolution calling for an investigation into human rights abuses against the Falun Gong spiritual movement after the Chinese embassy apparently intervened.

Falun Gong adherents practice techniques similar to Tai Chi and Qi Gong along with a philosophy centering on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The Chinese government banned Falun Gong in 1999, and since then has arrested thousands of its peaceful practitioners after classifying it as an illegal “heterodox religion.”

After it was introduced by Republican state senator Joel Anderson, the California resolution sailed through the senate judiciary committee before it was short-circuited, the Courthouse News Service reported.

Lawmakers then whittled down the initial resolution – five pages of forceful rhetoric against the actions of China – to a single, factual page. But just before the resolution was to be read on the floor, Senate Pro Tem Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, moved the measure to the Senate Rules Committee without a vote or discussion and then shelved it. De Leon’s decision may have been due to an unsigned letter sent by China’s consulate general in San Francisco, calling Falun Gong an “evil cult.” The letter was received the day before De Leon moved the bill. Neither De Leon’s office nor the Chinese consulate returned requests for comment.

As Natural News detailed last year, accusations have emerged that the Chinese government harvested the organs of jailed Falun Gong members while they were still alive. Many of these religious prisoners allegedly had their livers, organs and even eyes forcibly removed from their bodies so their captors could sell them for profit.

First launched in the early 1990s, Falun Gong reportedly gained approximately 70-100 million followers in China in its first few years. Beijing started cracking down on the movement after founder Li Hongzhi “refused to tie Falun Gong to communism and the state.”

Reacting to the way the resolution was circumvented, Sen. Anderson told the Courthouse News Service that “Here in California, we talk about California values. If we can’t stand up for those who simply want to meditate and become better people, if we can’t step up for religious liberty and freedom, not just here but around the world, we have failed those values.”

Separately, Republican lawmaker Janet Nguyen was silenced and physically removed from the Senate chamber last February for attempting to provide an alternative perspective about the late Tom Hayden, an anti-Vietnam War activist. Sen. Nguyen and her family became refugee boat people when they fled Vietnam after the communists took control of the entire country as U.S. forces withdrew.

Parenthetically, anti-Trump, progressive Hollywood has been accused of editing films to satisfy Chinese government censors on several occasions. And Apple is helping Beijing censor internet content by removing VPN software from its app store in China.

The late talk show host Bob Grant, whose career got started primarily in California before he moved on to New York City radio, used to say that liberals are the ultimate hypocrites.  (Related: Read more about California and other lawless bastions of socialism at Corruption.news.)

Trump-hating Democrats are also hell-bent on making California a sanctuary state non-compliant with federal immigration law, thereby enabling illegal alien felons to avoid apprehension. President Trump has prioritized the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes.

Sen. Anderson has vowed to attach the Falun Gong resolution language to each resolution that reaches the floor. “I am going to be relentless, because if Republicans don’t stand up to Democratic leadership that refuses to acknowledge genocide, who will,” he asked rhetorically.

Collusion has been a politically weaponized term thrown at the Trump administration, but do you think that California Democrats colluded with China to stop the Falun Gong resolution?

Sources include:

Courthousenews.com

Inquisitr.com