Falun Gong Practitioner Assaulted in London

A female Falun Gong practitioner calling attention to Beijing’s human rights abuses was assaulted by a man in London, the latest attack on the faith group that has sparked concerns about Beijing’s attempts to quash freedom of speech overseas.British police have opened an investigation into the incident, according to the victim, Zhang Chunhua. The Metropolitan Police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.The scuffle took place on Feb. 23 outside the British Museum, a popular tourist attraction for Chinese visitors in central London. Falun Gong practitioners, like Zhang, place posters outside the museum’s gate and talk to passersby almost daily, aiming to raise awareness of the communist regime’s brutality against their faith.Zhang, who was holding a poster at the time, approached a group of Chinese tourists as they were leaving the museum for a nearby bus. Zhang sought to drive a conversation with them, but was stopped by their Chinese tour guide, who cursed and shouted at her, Zhang told The Epoch Times.To avoid escalating the situation, Zhang said she stopped speaking to them and stood silently with her poster, which was about forced organ harvesting in China, a topic that is heavily censored by the communist regime.A male driver suddenly emerged from the bus, snatched her poster, and threw it away. As Zhang attempted to photograph him, the man grabbed her phone and tossed it into a nearby library’s gate, according to Zhang’s account.The scene turned violent as the man pushed her to the ground.Zhang said she had been trying to stop the man from leaving and call the police after getting back on her feet. But the man strangled her neck and punched her face, knocking her down again and continuing to beat her.The assault, she said, left bruises on her face, neck, and hand.Zhang Chunping falls on the ground after an assault in London on Feb. 23, 2026. Courtesy of Austin TangAustin Tang, who witnessed the attack, expressed his shock when recounting it to The Epoch Times on March 10.“I was just about to call the police when it happened,” Tang said. “In that instant, she was already lying on the ground. The driver attacked her so fast.”“I was caught off guard by the sudden attack. … And a man beating a woman, that’s something you rarely see here,” he said.Zhang Chunping, a Falun Gong practitioner who was assaulted in London on Feb. 23, 2026. Courtesy of Zhang ChunpingThe attack on Falun Gong practitioners is the latest in a series of similar incidents in London and elsewhere that have heightened concerns about a hate and harassment campaign exported from China.Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that was introduced to the public in 1992, involves meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.In 1999, after official estimates put the number of practitioners in the country at 70 million to 100 million, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initiated a nationwide campaign to wipe out the practice. Since then, numerous practitioners have faced arrest, detentions, forced labor, and various forms of torture for refusing to give up their faith. The resulting death toll from the persecution remains unclear, largely due to the difficulty of obtaining such information through China’s Great Firewall.As the persecution continues in China, practitioners in Britain say they frequently encounter harassment while volunteering to shed light on the CCP’s human rights violations. One instance of this occurred in 2018, when a violent attack outside the British Museum resulted in a female practitioner suffering a spinal fracture, according to the Falun Dafa Association in the UK.Zhang, the victim of the latest assault, attributed the incident to the CCP’s decades-long propaganda efforts, which have expanded to media outside the country.“Our actions—whether it’s clarifying the truth or collecting petitions—are peaceful and protected by law,” Zhang said.“It’s shocking that the driver, who appeared to be from the West, could carry out such a violent act. This illustrates how deeply the CCP’s lies could have influenced people.”She highlighted the tour company’s link to Beijing. The bus operator, FCD Transportation Limited, is owned by EG Travel, which describes itself on the official website as the “only supplier” appointed by the Chinese Embassy in Dublin, Ireland. The site listed high-ranking Chinese officials whom the company had served, including a stopover by then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in 2015.Zhang Chunping (R) talks to tourists beside a poster about the forced organ harvesting in China, near the British Museum in London. Courtesy of Zhang ChunpingIn recent months, similar attacks on Falun Gong practitioners have also been recorded in other countries. In the United States, the latest incident occurred on Feb. 27, when a man knocked a female practitioner to the ground near an information booth in New York City.In Australia, Falun Gong practitioners were assaulted in Sydney last December, leaving one man with a bloody face.Falun Dafa Information Center, a nonprofit that monitors the regime’s persecution of Falun Gong, called the recent attacks “part of a broader pattern of harassment and intimidation linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s overseas influence and transnational repression.”Frank Fang contributed to this report.