Malaysia’s decision to detain dozens of Falun Gong practitioners before and during a visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping has drawn alarm from the U.S. State Department and human rights advocates. Two days before Xi’s arrival in mid-April in the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, about two dozen police officers appeared at a private venue where nearly 80 Falun Gong practitioners had gathered for a routine study of spiritual texts. The officers demanded their identification documents and forcibly detained them.
Those arrested include a woman older than 80 and a 10-year-old child. Among the group were also 29 people originally from China who are seeking protection from the sweeping persecution targeting their beliefs in China. Several are U.N. refugees. The 47 Malaysian citizens were released hours after Xi left, and the Chinese nationals were freed during the two weeks that followed. The mass arrest marked the first of its kind in Malaysia, taking place as Xi toured Southeast Asia to promote the Chinese Communist Party as a reliable trading partner amid a tariff war with the United States.
The U.S. State Department expressed concern about the reports. “We call on the Chinese Communist Party to end its nearly 26-year campaign to eradicate Falun Gong and to cease its attempts to pressure other governments to repress the practice of Falun Gong,” a department spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “We call on Malaysia to respect the principle of non-refoulement and to not return Falun Gong practitioners to China where they reportedly have been subjected to torture and imprisonment for their beliefs.”
