The U.S. State Department on May 13 highlighted the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of the Chinese communist regime. “On World Falun Dafa Day, we recognize the countless Falun Gong practitioners the PRC [People’s Republic of China] harasses & abuses simply for their beliefs,” the department’s Office of International Religious Freedom wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. The message came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions against Yu Hui, a Chinese official, over his involvement in the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong adherents. A Chinese police chief was similarly sanctioned by the United States in December. Adherents of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, have been victims of a sweeping campaign of repression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for more than two decades. The practice, which includes meditative exercises and a set of moral teachings centered around the tenets …