Thousands rallied at the nation’s capital to observe the dark anniversary of when the Chinese regime began persecuting the spiritual practice on July 20, 1999.
WASHINGTON—Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from across the nation rallied at the National Mall on July 17, marking 26 years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began a systematic persecution targeting the faith group. Leading human rights experts spoke, highlighting a critical crossroads.
The persecution is not something only happening in China, they said, as the CCP has ramped up its transnational repression campaign and exported its persecution efforts onto American soil.
Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) said he was honored to join Falun Gong practitioners’ continued efforts to counter the CCP’s persecution. Ryan’s district includes the headquarters of Shen Yun Performing Arts, a classical Chinese dance company founded by Falun Gong practitioners.
“Your unwavering adherence to the values that we see here so powerfully today, of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, truly serves as a beacon for everyone in our great country, in the United States America,” he said.
Ryan is a co-sponsor of the Falun Gong Protection Act, which would sanction the communist regime for its practice of killing detained Falun Gong practitioners for their organs. The bill has passed in the House, and Ryan called on the Senate to advance and pass its version of the legislation.
“I’ll continue to speak out with all your help and to amplify your voices, without hesitation or reservation, against any restriction of human rights, and specifically the persecution of religious groups and Falun Gong,” Ryan said.
Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual practice that involves meditative exercises and moral teachings centered on the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. It surged in popularity in China in the 1990s, with about 70 million to 100 million people taking up the practice by the end of the decade, according to official estimates at the time. This was deemed a threat to the communist regime’s absolute control.
Since July 20, 1999, the CCP has sought to wipe out the practice through violent means, including torture in concentration camps and forced organ harvesting, as well as manipulation of public opinion with propaganda.
Then-Party leader Jiang Zemin, the architect of the persecution, had expected he would be able to “eradicate” the practice in short order. But 26 years later, Falun Gong is still practiced not only in China but in around 100 countries worldwide, and practitioners continue to call attention to the CCP’s human rights abuses.
“We gather here to bear witness to an ongoing tragedy,” said Alan Adler, executive director of Friends of Falun Gong.
“But the CCP failed to understand that you cannot extinguish the human spirit. For 26 years, Falun Gong practitioners have stood firm, with unwavering conviction, inspiring people worldwide.
“This persecution threatens the fundamental right of every human being to believe and live according to their conscience. When we defend these practitioners, we defend human dignity itself.
“The CCP influence has spread far beyond China’s borders. If we remain silent, we turn away, we risk losing the freedom that defines us as a civilized society today.”
Greg Scarlatoiu, president of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said Falun Gong practitioners are an inspiration to human rights advocates, having stood against one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
“No oppressive campaigns are welcome on U.S. soil. They never will be,” Scarlatoiu said. “Truth, compassion, tolerance, and human rights will always prevail. We will prevail together and soon celebrate the fall of tyrants.”
Piero Tozzi, staff director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), a bipartisan and bicameral panel, said the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong reveals its unchanged “monstrous nature.”
“For over 25 years, Falun Gong has been the canary in the coal mine, warning of the oppressive nature of the communist regime,” said Tozzi, a longtime supporter of Falun Gong practitioners’ efforts to end the regime’s persecution.
Tozzi had served as senior policy adviser to Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who authored the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2025 and held the first congressional hearing on the persecution of Falun Gong about two decades ago. Tozzi called on the Senate to pass the bill, which would sanction individuals involved in the CCP’s state-sanctions operation to harvest organs from prisoners of conscience for sale on the transplant market.
Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, said the communist regime’s sweeping repression of Falun Gong amounted to a genocide.
“The threat to Falun Gong and other forbidden groups is coming here,” Shea said.
“I was personally at the Kennedy Center earlier this year when there was a bomb threat,” she said, referring to a fake bomb threat on the day of Shen Yun’s opening performance.
The CCP has been behind efforts to threaten, physically attack, and spread propaganda against these religious believers in America, Shea said.
“This is unacceptable, it’s un-American, it’s a denial of religious freedom, and a denial of free speech,” she said.
Mohamed Elsanousi, commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, called on the U.S. government to stand behind Falun Gong and against the CCP’s persecution.
“Freedom of religion or belief is a right all countries must preserve and protect, and the United States must continue to lead as a powerful voice for all those who live under religious oppression,” he said.
Speakers also included Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation China Studies Associate Director Serkan Tas, Christian Freedom International president Wendy Wright, International Assessment and Strategy Center senior fellow Rick Fisher, Creative Society President Olga Schmidt, Katartismos Global Director of Advocacy Faith McDonnell, and World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong Chair Zhiyuan Wang.