Spotlight on Transnational Repression as Falun Gong Endures 27 Years of Persecution

WASHINGTON—A woman handing out flyers in front of an informational booth in New York City was raising awareness about the ongoing persecution in China against her faith.A Chinese man passing by warned her, “Be careful.” Someone may come and smash things up, he told her.The person seemed well-intentioned, but the warning was another reminder of the constant China-linked harassment and intimidation that Falun Gong practitioners may face even in the United States.“When I first came to America, I thought I was safe,” the woman said, “but after all these years, I know now I’m not absolutely safe.”She asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal against her family in China.A number of Falun Gong practitioners in New York City and other cities have reported being attacked on the streets by Chinese individuals. Few of the perpetrators have faced consequences.One of the most recent incidents occurred in February in New York City’s largest Chinese enclave. In the Flushing neighborhood, a man dressed mostly in black struck a Falun Gong practitioner in the back of the head, knocking her to the ground.Nearby, in 2025, New York City libraries received threats targeting an event commemorating a key anniversary for Falun Gong practitioners.During a 2024 Falun Gong parade in Brooklyn, a man spat at and punched two participants, both women.In a report published last month, the U.S.-based Falun Dafa Information Center documented hundreds of cases of Beijing-linked transnational repression targeting Falun Gong practitioners in the United States since 2020.Since July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tried to eradicate Falun Gong, a spiritual practice centered on principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. An estimated 70 million to 100 million people in China had taken up the practice by the end of the 1990s.‘Cruel Campaign’The issue of transnational repression was one of the key topics during an international religious freedom forum in Washington.“July 20 marks the 27th anniversary of the CCP’s cruel campaign to eradicate Falun Gong,” Riley Barnes, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, said ​​at the Museum of the Bible on July 16.“The U.S. government takes attacks on members of religious groups such as the Falun Gong seriously and is committed to using all appropriate tools to pursue accountability for Chinese officials’ involvement in repressive acts.”​​He said the United States is “determined to hold perpetrators accountable for violating [U.S.] sovereignty and targeting Americans on American soil.”Riley Barnes, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, speaks at an international religious freedom forum in Washington on July 16, 2026. Courtesy of Sound of Hope Radio NetworkThe Chinese regime has a history of targeting the family members of overseas Falun Gong practitioners to suppress their activism.This was the case for the woman who manned the Chinatown Falun Gong information booth. She said her daughter, a senior manager at a Chinese firm, was forced to retire early after repeated harassment from Chinese officials.In 2020, the practitioner said, Chinese authorities made her daughter call her from China to pressure her into giving up her faith, saying that they “don’t allow the practice even in America.”They also made her son sign a statement promising that if she ever went back to China, he would report her to them.“The essence of communism is evil,” the practitioner told The Epoch Times. “Every day the [CCP] remains standing, it will continue persecuting people to the very end.”Ongoing PersecutionYou Ling and her son are residents of Florida. They have been appealing to members of Congress to secure the release of their husband and father, Zhou Deyong.Zhou was detained in China in April 2021 and sentenced to an eight-year jail term in April 2023 for practicing Falun Gong.Zhou Deyong and You Ling in Monument Valley, Navajo County, Ariz., in January 2020. Courtesy of Zhou YouIn 2022, then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) led eight Florida lawmakers in urging the U.S. State Department to help free Zhou.Zhou, a geological engineer, is currently being held in a prison in China’s eastern Shandong Province.His wife said that the prison has limited visitation rights to his immediate family members and that his lawyer has been unable to meet with him.Zhou has become alarmingly thin because of his failing teeth, yet his recent request to see a dentist was denied, according to You. His hair has turned white, she said.Practicing Falun Gong is part of religious freedom and freedom of speech, she said. But the CCP does not act in accordance with the law, she told The Epoch Times.“It does whatever it wants,” she said.Zhou’s mother passed away in 2025 without being able to see him.Sally Sun contributed to this report.