The nonprofit organization calls on the United States to designate China’s ruling CCP as a terrorist organization.
NEW YORK CITY—A local grassroots advocacy group says it received near daily threats of bomb and terror attacks for over a week before a man smashed up one of the organization’s booths in New York City last week.
“The CCP’s acts of terror threaten the lives and property of the American people, threaten the security and stability of American communities, and undermine America’s foundation of religious freedom. We call on the United States to take this seriously and designate the CCP as a terrorist organization and a terrorist party,” the Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party wrote in a statement.
The New York-based center is a nonprofit organization formed in the wake of the global “Tuidang” (”Quit the CCP“) movement sparked by The Epoch Times’ 2004 editorial series “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.” The center aids Chinese people in withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and has recorded more than 446 million withdrawals to date.
The organization was the recipient of recent threats aimed at the Falun Gong community in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. The threats began ahead of the anniversary of a key date related to the Chinese communist regime’s religious persecution of Falun Gong, and one day after thousands of Falun Gong practitioners held a parade and rally in Flushing, calling for an end to the persecution and standing in support of more than 440 million Chinese people who have quit the CCP.
Threats Surrounding the April 25 Anniversary
On April 20, the service center received a message threatening a mass shooting of anyone wearing clothes with “Falun Gong” on April 25 in Flushing.
The date marks Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful appeal for their religious freedom on April 25, 1999, in Beijing. The practice, also known as Falun Dafa, teaches the three principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, and gained immense popularity upon its introduction to the public in China in 1992.
The Chinese communist regime launched a violent persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on July 20, 1999, under which practitioners have been victims of torture, forced labor, human trafficking, and even live organ harvesting.
Since then, Falun Gong practitioners around the world annually commemorate the April 25 appeal with parades and gatherings aimed at raising awareness about the ongoing religious persecution. The Flushing neighborhood, home to a large Chinese-speaking population, has for years been the site of a parade and rally held by Falun Gong practitioners to mark the date. This year, the event was held on April 19, a Saturday.
Between April 20 and April 28, the center received six messages threatening bomb attacks, shootings, car accidents, rapes, abductions of children, and other acts of terror, largely targeting Falun Gong practitioners and supporters.
On April 20, multiple Queens Public Library branches received fake bomb threats, demanding that they block events related to Falun Gong.
An official with the New York City Police Department’s 109th Precinct confirmed that the emails the center and libraries received are similar, and that the IP addresses of the emails are located in China.
Cybersecurity experts who recently assessed similar emailed threats told The Epoch Times that they believe the emails came from the Chinese regime or its operatives.
Eyewitness Account
In Flushing, Falun Gong practitioners and volunteers with the Global Service Center for Quitting often have a booth set up near the Main Street subway station, offering materials about how to quit the CCP, as well as information about Falun Gong.
Chen Yikui, a Falun Gong practitioner, was nearby and passing out pamphlets the morning of April 29 when he saw a man of apparent Chinese descent walk over and begin kicking the booth, almost knocking it over.
“I felt that with his strength and speed, if I hadn’t gone over to stop him, he would have kicked it apart,” Chen told The Epoch Times.
Chen said the man also yelled at a practitioner to hit him, as if trying to incite a fight. A video taken of the incident and viewed by The Epoch Times corroborates Chen’s account.
Chen said that the man took a call while he was at the booth, and Chen wondered whether the man was being directed to attack the booth. When he asked the man why he was kicking the booth, the man, who identified himself as Fan Yang, said he didn’t like them and that no one had sent him.
Chen said that Fan accused the practitioners of illegally setting up the booth, to which Chen replied that they were exercising their First Amendment rights and that the police who routinely patrolled by the booth greeted them normally.
Some of the Falun Gong practitioners who distribute pamphlets in Flushing have experienced firsthand the CCP’s persecution in China, such as detention and torture, and find the harassment and recent threats characteristic of the regime.
The service center has reported the incident to the local police and the FBI.
Along with the email threats, Chen said that he and a few other practitioners experienced harassment while they were doing their daily morning exercises in Kissena Park in Flushing between April 30 and May 2. Some onlookers, apparently Chinese, played Chinese music at high volume and hurled insults toward them and about Falun Gong.
He said that this kind of harassment has never happened before and that he believes it is part of the same campaign.
Chen said he chose to ignore the hecklers and continued to meditate with his eyes closed, though he did find their actions disturbing.
They reminded him of similar incidents when Chinese undercover police and agents tried to disrupt their morning exercises by pouring water or sweeping dust over them, just before the persecution of Falun Gong officially began in China, Chen said.