Pascack Valley and Hills Chinese teacher saves lives, fights human rights abuses in China

A local Chinese teacher is saving lives by fighting human rights abuses in China.

Liam O’Neill, known as 歐陽老師 (Ouyang Laoshi, pronounced "Ohyahng Laoshir") among his students at Pascack Valley and Pascack Hills high schools, jokes that he keeps company with the likes of Brad Pitt. Both were barred from entering China, Pitt for his involvement in the 1997 movie “Seven Years in Tibet” and O’Neill for assisting Chinese people granted asylum.

“I'm involved in some things that the Chinese Communist Party would want to know about,” O’Neill said. “They would want to know the people I've helped, and what their names are, and who their relatives are, and where they're from in China. And all that information is very valuable for an authoritarian regime like the CCP. If I went to China … that would be dangerous for me.”

O’Neill, who is fluent in Mandarin, helps people who have left China due to torture, harassment or forced labor apply for asylum in the U.S. He has directly documented and translated the abuses that asylum seekers faced in about three dozen cases.

A family of three who were persecuted for their belief in the religious movement Falun Gong deeply inspired O'Neill, who is also a practitioner in Falun Gong. Both parents lost high-paying jobs in China. The family members were harassed and at one point jailed. Not only could they no longer make ends meet, but also the threat of further persecution loomed over them. With O'Neill's help, they were granted asylum in the U.S.

“The courage they've displayed in the face of unthinkable torture is among the most impactful things in my life," O'Neill said.

Shanghai study abroad changed his life

O’Neill grew up in Milwaukee. He was a psychology major at Swarthmore College with dreams of attending medical school when he was first introduced to Chinese language and culture. To become a well-rounded doctor, he sought to study alternative medicine. In 1999, he studied abroad at East China Normal University in Shanghai to learn traditional Chinese medicine.

There, O’Neill took classes on language, history and medicine while gaining clinical experience by observing acupuncturists.

He also conducted an independent study on qigong (pronounced "cheegong"), ancient Chinese and Tibetan breathing, meditation and movement exercises that improve health and spirituality. While conducting this study, he encountered Falun Gong, as it incorporates qigong in its practices.

Though Falun Gong was introduced by Li Hongzhi just seven years earlier, in 1992, it spread quickly, gaining millions of practitioners, said O'Neill, who became a practitioner after his experience abroad.

He returned to China in the summer of 1999, after his semester abroad. During this time, he stayed in various Buddhist monasteries and conducted research on religious persecution, especially concerning Falun Gong, in China.

Though the government initially praised the movement, it felt threatened by Falun Gong's rapid growth, and after an April 1999 protest by practitioners outside a government compound in Beijing — the largest protest at the time since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations — the government sought to eradicate the movement. Human Rights Watch noted that the crackdown is consistent with historical efforts by the CCP to eliminate religion, which the party believes is inherently subversive.

The monks asked O'Neill to leave China abruptly on July 20, 1999, well before his summer abroad was scheduled to end. It was dangerous for him to remain in the country because the government had begun a nationwide crackdown and propaganda campaign against Falun Gong, labeling it an "evil cult."

Because he was in China when the persecution of Falun Gong became widespread, O’Neill dedicated his life’s work to activism.

“I was there in China when it happened to something that has given me so much meaning,” he said. “And I know that to stand by idly would be wrong. … It’s my conscience that pushes me forward, and I’ve never questioned that. It’s just who I am.”

Persecution of religious, ethnic minorities in China

China has a history of religious persecution and human rights abuses. All forms of religion were persecuted during the cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976, O'Neill said. After the revolution, five religions were formally recognized by the government, though they remain under strict state surveillance and control, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

However, many religious practitioners, even those following state-sanctioned religions, continue to be persecuted. Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners are among the persecuted.

According to professor Sahar Aziz at Rutgers Law School, the forced internment of Muslim Uyghurs in China and those who criticize the repression of Islam has been well-documented by several human rights organizations. In recent years, human rights groups have reported that the persecution has extended to forced organ harvesting of Uyghurs, a practice historically used against Falun Gong practitioners. Although China has denied such allegations, Aziz noted that this "does not make them unfounded," especially given the well-documented mass internment of Uyghurs.

"Treated as inferior outsiders to the Han majority Chinese society, Uyghur communities remain vulnerable to myriad forms of exploitation," Aziz said. "Organ harvesting is an unsurprising expansion of the Chinese government's dehumanization of Uyghurs. Without mechanisms of accountability by the United Nations and other international organizations, the Chinese government has no incentive to stop persecuting and exploiting Uyghurs."

O’Neill is a volunteer reporter for the website faluninfo.net, which provides information about Falun Gong and documents human rights abuses against practitioners. He edits articles and helps write news releases. It is important to note that O'Neill is not paid for this and that all of his human rights work concerning China is done on a volunteer basis.

“It's complicated to get things out of China,” O’Neill said. “There are people who die because they get information abroad. ... You take this evidence and … try to make sense of the reports that you're hearing in China and put that into English on this website so that people can know, whether it's reporters, whether it's government policymakers, whether it's the general public.”

Joy in sharing language, culture with students

O’Neill enjoys sharing Chinese language and culture with students at Pascack Valley and Pascack Hills, where he teaches Mandarin.

“It’s a really nice balance, working with kids on something that I love, Chinese language and Chinese culture,” he said. “It’s a really nice balance to the horror that I see from this other area of my life.”

Despite the persecution that practitioners of Falun Gong and other religions endure in China, O’Neill has hope for the survivors and believes that things will change.

“The Chinese say it the best: Tomorrow is literally called a bright day,” O’Neill said. “There's essentially nothing more enduring in our recorded history than Chinese culture. … Over 5,000 years, it has gone through triumph and famine and destruction."

He added, "I know that Chinese culture will survive, and it'll be the people that carry it forward.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Pascack Valley and Hills Chinese teacher helps asylum seekers