A former state Senator shared his concerns over the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in California and how he became a “terrorist” to the Chinese government for advocating for human rights.
Joel Anderson, a San Diego County Supervisor and former state senator and assemblyman, said he was prohibited from entering China after he issued a recognition acknowledging the anniversary of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice composed of meditative exercises and moral teachings originating in China in 1992.
“I got a six-page letter from the Chinese government saying that I was now considered a terrorist and if I go to China that I will be arrested and sentenced,” Anderson said during the interview with California Insider, a show with The Epoch Times.
Anderson said he began looking into the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners after one of his constituents sent in a letter requesting him to rescue her mother, a U.S. citizen who practices Falun Gong, who was arrested in China for her belief.
Anderson said he was shocked when he learned about the CCP’s organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.
“They were being harvested like cattle to sell their body parts to tourists who are on medical tourism,” he said.
Anderson found there were already five countries that stopped all medical tourism to China.
“Because you could literally order a kidney, a lung any body part you wanted, and you could show up and have the surgery,” he said.
The average wait time for patients who need a kidney transplant is between three to five years or even longer in the United States, according to the National Kidney Foundation.
“It’s wrong. It violates every human right,” he said.
Anderson later proposed a bill expressing support for Falun Gong practitioners in American and China.
After its proposal in 2017, the Chinese consulate in San Francisco sent a letter to members of the state legislature, denouncing Falun Gong and claiming the bill might “deeply damage the cooperative relations between the State of California and China, and seriously hurt the feeling of Chinese people and the vast Chinese community in California.”
After receiving the letter, many legislators did not support the resolution, including those who co-authored it.
Then Senate Pro Tem, Kevin De Leon, who now is a Los Angeles city councilman, shelved the bill without a vote or discussion.
Anderson said a similar resolution had been proposed three times in Congress and some congressmen from California supported these resolutions, but legislators from the same district refused to go near it after receiving the letter.
“It was shocking to me that the Chinese government had so much influence in our state,” he said.
Anderson mentioned that many residents and the politicians at the local level do not understand the CCP’s influence in California because the Chinese regime is only interested in cities that exert a greater impact in society in relation to economy and politics.
“The influence of the Chinese consulate in San Franscico is overwhelming and is well known,” he said.
Anderson praised the former U.S. president, Donald Trump, for being the first president to stand up to China and its hegemony as well as its influence throughout the world.
“Sadly, once he left the office, the new administration has embraced this and allowed them greater latitude and I have great fear,” he said.
Anderson encouraged Americans to write to their legislators and ask them to call on China to stop the genocide against people of faith.
Said Anderson: “California is an incredible state with wonderful resources. If we want to be the leaders we say we are, then our actions have to reflect it. … All I am asking is that they stand up and be consistent with their policies and hold China to the same standard that they hold Texas.”
