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A U.S. official is calling for the Biden administration to sanction perpetrators after a Chinese journalist died in jail for adhering to his faith.
The man, Pang Xun, died from torture at 30 years old in December, a little more than a year after his arrest for his belief in the spiritual discipline Falun Gong. His deceased body showed marks of torture all over, with traces of blood visible on his pale, swollen lips.
“This is the world under the Chinese Communist Party rule,” said his grieving mother in a video on Dec. 3 as she saw the body of her dead son in the crematorium.
She pointed to his back that swelled up in red, likely due to beating. “This is way too cruel,” she said. “Pang Xun, do you know that mother loves you? Mother will clear your name.”
The official, David Curry—a commissioner for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom who recently spoke on a federal panel for religious freedom—said that the agency is “deeply saddened” by the death of Pang after having documented hundreds of similar sentencings of Falun Gong adherents from 2021 in their latest report, “some of whom have tragically died in custody due to abuses.
“We condemn the Chinese government’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and urge the U.S. government to impose sanctions, including multilateral targeted sanctions in coordination with like-minded international partners, on Chinese officials and entities responsible for these horrific abuses,” he told The Epoch Times.
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline that encourages adherents to live by the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
