Truth, Inspiration, Hope.

IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Goes to Book Exposing CCP Genocide Against Falun Gong

Simone Jonker
Simone Jonker worked in NTD Inspired for two years. She wrote light articles and inspiring stories.
Published: May 20, 2021
Falun Gong practitioners take part in a silent protest calling to bring former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, to justice in Hong Kong on October 1, 2004. Minghui Publishing was awarded the highly acclaimed Benjamin Franklin Award for its groundbreaking book, Minghui Report: The 20-Year Persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Falun Gong practitioners take part in a silent protest calling to bring former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, to justice in Hong Kong on October 1, 2004. (Image: SAMANTHA SIN/AFP via Getty Images)

The winner of the prestigious 2021 Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book, Nonfiction, was announced at an elite award ceremony hosted by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) on May 14.

The Benjamin Franklin Award in Silver went to Minghui Publishing for its book  Minghui Report: The 20-Year Persecution of Falun Gong in China.

The IBPA (est. 1983) is the largest publishers’ association in the United States. The Benjamin Franklin Award is one of the most exemplary national honors an independent publisher can win.

The Minghui Report was praised by reviewers and critics for both its unique content and elegant presentation. The hardcover volume totals 437 pages, including 26 pages of color photos and graphs. It is also available in a downloadable PDF.

The book clarifies three basic misconceptions the Communist Party has created to justify its campaign of persecution against the practice: the April 25, 1999 appeal at Zhongnanhai, the Tiananmen Square self-immolation hoax, and the “1,400 deaths” hoax.

The book also expounds on Falun Gong practitioners’ 21 years of worldwide efforts to counter the persecution.

Peter Westmore, former President of the National Civic Council in Australia, highly recommended the book to libraries and government officials in the August 8, 2020 issue of News Weekly.

“For those concerned about the misuse of Chinese power around the world, this book is an essential source of information,” he wrote, adding the Minghui Report “deserves to be found in libraries around the world, and in offices of parliamentarians, so that the truth may be told.”

A senior reviewer for the Midwest Book Review Bookwatch, Michael J. Carson, praised the expose as, “impressively informative, exceptionally well organized, and presented.”

“It is a unique, extraordinary, and comprehensive study that is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library Falun Gong collections and supplemental studies reading lists.”

Minghui Publishing was congratulated by Chinese-language author Zhang Lin, a Chinese dissident who has experienced first hand what detention under the communist regime is all about. 

Zhang said the award imparted solid recognition on the anti-persecution efforts by Falun Gong’s adherents both inside and outside mainland China, adding the award would further help spread awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong to the world’s people and expose the abominable acts of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

While in detention in China, Zhang recounted the fearless courage he witnessed from practitioners who were faced with torture and mistreatment in prisons while the CCP attempted to force them to renounce their beliefs.

David Li, a representative for Minghui, thanked the IBPA in his acceptance speech. Li said he was honoured to speak up for a peaceful community of spiritual believers in China who are being subjected to ongoing persecution for their faith.

“Volunteers for Minghui.org are a great team, without them, the book wouldn’t be possible. It’s hard to describe how courageous they are while risking their security to collect information amid the CCP’s blockade and surveillance,” he said.

According to the publishers, the book is a “milestone report based entirely on firsthand information collected by Minghui.org from China and around the world.” 

“The book gives readers a comprehensive, genuine experience of the past twenty years of persecution facing Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) extension of the persecution overseas through its intimidation of leaders and businesses in other countries.”

The Minghui Report’s documentation of the battle between good and evil vividly illustrates the barbarity of the persecution in China and abroad, describing the roles of key perpetrators and CCP agencies, including the notorious “610 Office,” responsible for launching and pushing forward the persecution.