Falun Gong Practitioners Join U.S. July 4th Celebrations; New Report on Beijing’s Transnational Repression

Dear Reader,

Two hundred and fifty years ago, America’s founding fathers enshrined individual freedom as a core principle of the newborn nation. Two and a half centuries later, America still shines as a beacon for those seeking to freely express and exercise their faith. Over the past week, Falun Gong practitioners from across the United States joined fellow Americans in celebrating the country’s 250th birthday. At this moment, I want to express my gratitude to America and its people for the enduring support you have extended to the Falun Gong community throughout the prolonged, brutal persecution in China—support that has allowed many practitioners fleeing horrors to build a new home here.

At the same time, the freedom we enjoy in America is under attack. On June 30, the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) released a new research report, Americans Targeted by Beijing. Drawing on a first-of-its-kind nationwide survey of more than 1,000 U.S. Falun Gong practitioners, the report finds that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging a deliberate and escalating campaign to silence Falun Gong here on U.S. soil, with over 600 cases reported across at least 30 states. As Americans, we must act to defend the freedoms the CCP seeks to undermine.

Also in this issue:

• Falun Gong practitioners staged peaceful protests in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland during CCP Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Nordic tour.

• The FDIC documented at least 10 incidents of transnational repression in June that occurred in six countries, including physical assaults in South Korea and London.

• A 77-year-old grandmother in Shandong Province was secretly sentenced to three years and imprisoned just 13 days after her arrest.

• The eve of persecution: how a peaceful practice of 70–100 million came to be targeted by the CCP on July 20, 1999.

​Finally, I’d like to share a television interview with FDIC researcher Mark Yang, who walks through the findings of our new report.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

Falun Gong Communities Across the U.S. Join Fourth of July Celebrations, Expressing Gratitude to America

What’s new?

Falun Gong practitioners took part in Independence Day parades and community festivals in cities across the United States over the July 4 weekend, joining fellow Americans in marking the nation’s 250th anniversary and expressing gratitude to the country and its people for safeguarding freedom of belief.

On July 4, nearly 200 practitioners with the Tian Guo Marching Band and a waist-drum team performed near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., after the official parade was canceled due to extreme heat. The performance drew tourists from across the country. Diana, a visitor from Texas, learned about the persecution of Falun Gong in China and told practitioners, “You are absolutely welcome in America.”

On the West Coast, practitioners appeared in the Huntington Beach, California, parade—the largest Independence Day parade west of the Mississippi, drawing more than 500,000 spectators in its 122nd year. Their float, decorated in red, white, and blue and bearing the words “God Bless America,” was accompanied by a banner reading “Thank You America for Our Freedom.”

In the Chicago area, practitioners joined the Evanston Independence Day parade, which they have taken part in every year since 2001. Practitioners also participated in celebrations in Coronado and Redwood City, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Delaware. Many spectators tried the exercises and signed petitions opposing the persecution of Falun Gong.

Why does it matter?

Many practitioners who marched had themselves suffered persecution in China before finding refuge in America. Through celebrating with their fellow Americans, the Falun Gong community across the U.S. hopes to express gratitude for the religious freedom they enjoy in the United States—a freedom that remains out of reach for practitioners in China.

American-born practitioners have found that the teachings of Falun Dafa echo the core values of their homeland. Retired Navy veteran and practitioner Mike Tuck, who served more than two decades at the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego, carried the American flag at the head of the practitioner contingent in the local July 4 parade. “My military service taught me about responsibility, resilience, and sacrifice,” he said. “Now, in this celebration with the community, I am glad to share what the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance mean to us.”

What else do you need to know?

Practitioners also gathered signatures at community street fairs in support of S.4009, the Falun Gong and Forced Organ Harvesting Victims Protection Act, now before the U.S. Senate. One local resident, David, signed after learning of the persecution, saying he did not want to see any government strip its people of freedom and rights—“exactly what we are celebrating today.”

Falun Gong practitioners join the Independence Day celebration. (Minghui)

Nordic Capitals See Peaceful Falun Gong Protests During Wang Yi’s Visit

Falun Gong practitioners held peaceful protests in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland during a visit to the Nordic region by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Foreign Minister Wang Yi between July 2 and 8. They called for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China and voiced support for the more than 450 million Chinese people who have renounced their ties to the CCP.

The protests were covered by mainstream media outlets in Denmark and Finland. A photograph of the protest banners was featured by YLE, Finland’s national public broadcaster. In Denmark, a photographer for Politiken, a major Danish newspaper, witnessed two Chinese male officials approach protesters and attempt to stop their activity. Danish police intervened, preventing the officials from interfering with the protesters.

A Falun Gong protester, Janni Lui Witt, told Politiken that one man demanded that she and other protesters leave. Witt responded: “Do you think you’re in China or what? Denmark is a democratic country with freedom of speech, so we’re allowed to demonstrate.”

June 2026 Transnational Repression Update

In June, the Falun Dafa Information Center documented at least 10 incidents of transnational repression targeting Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun Performing Arts across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

The month marked a troubling turn toward physical violence: three men attacked an information site on Jeju Island, South Korea, injuring practitioners before being arrested, and a practitioner was assaulted near London’s British Museum. Online, perpetrators impersonated media outlets founded by Falun Gong practitioners, the Information Center itself, and even Falun Gong’s founder to spread bomb threats and fabricated warnings, with many incidents clustering around the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The month’s cases bring the total number of anonymous death threats documented since March 2024 to 302.

Shandong Grandmother Secretly Sentenced to Three Years and Imprisoned Just 13 Days After Arrest for Practicing Falun Gong

Shandong Province Women’s Prison (Minghui.org)

On May 12, 2026, Ms. Liu Yulian, a 77-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Linqing City, Shandong Province, was seized by police while heading to work in the fields. Just 13 days later, she was already behind the walls of Shandong Province Women’s Prison. Her family was never notified of any charge, trial, or lawyer—when they asked, police said only that she “had been sentenced to three years.”

Ms. Liu has been targeted for her faith for more than two decades, including a home raid in which officers cut off a strand of her hair, apparently in an effort to collect her DNA, after she refused to give a blood sample. Many practitioners are hesitant to provide blood because such testing has been linked to the regime’s screening of detainees for forced organ harvesting. At the same time, practitioner DNA samples in police databases have also been used to detain people based on materials related to Falun Gong that they had distributed. With Ms. Liu’s family denied any word on her condition, there are grave concerns for the safety of this elderly grandmother.

Have you read this? Eve of Persecution

Twenty-seven years ago, we were on the eve of the CCP unleashing its terror against Falun Gong. By the summer of 1999, Falun Gong had grown to an estimated 70 to 100 million practitioners across China—a number that, by the regime’s own count, exceeded the membership of the CCP itself.

On July 20, 1999, then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched a nationwide campaign to eradicate the practice, setting in motion the arrests, torture, and forced organ harvesting that continue today. The story of how a peaceful spiritual community became China’s most persecuted faith group is one every reader should know.

On July 1, FDIC researcher Mark Yang joined Capitol Report on NTD Television to discuss what FDIC’s latest report reveals about the CCP’s escalating transnational repression of Falun Gong and Shen Yun in the United States.

Yang laid out evidence of a deliberate, coordinated transnational repression campaign carried out by the CCP through increasingly sophisticated tactics. “What we are seeing is not a distant human rights atrocity,” Yang said. “What we are seeing right now is happening in the United States.” He described the report as a wake-up call for all Americans, given how the CCP’s actions pose serious threats to American sovereignty, national security, and the American way of life.