Falun Gong Practitioners Harassed and Assaulted Near US–China Summit in Washington, DC (September 24, 2026)

Description

On September 24, Falun Gong practitioners stood on the sidewalk of Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, DC, opposite the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters, holding banners reading “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong.” Their appeal came as a US-China leaders’ summit took place in the city that day.

Pro-Beijing counter-demonstrators assembled directly across the street and immediately alongside the practitioners. According to the practitioners’ accounts, the counter-demonstrators shouted insults throughout the day, pressed physically against the practitioners, sang Chinese Communist Party (CCP) songs with anti-American lyrics, and twice tried to pull a banner out of a practitioner’s hands. Police separated the two groups during the morning, and in the early afternoon officers blocked two women who had gone for the banner, one of them the woman later named in the assault described below.

In mid-afternoon, Falun Gong practitioner Xin Qin crossed the street to photograph the banners. As she walked back, several counter-demonstrators blocked her path and advanced on her. Xin said a woman—named by two eyewitnesses as Li Huahong, a Chinese immigrant living in New York City—seized her with both hands and took her to the ground. Xin said that three or four others then struck her head, face, and body as she lay on her back, that Li pinned her and bit her leg, and that someone tried to take her phone. Xin sustained scrapes to her hand, knee, and elbow, limited movement in one shoulder, and a cracked phone. Police pulled Li off Xin and handcuffed her; a second officer helped Xin up.

Li’s charging status could not be confirmed at the time of writing.

Evidence

See below: three timestamped photographs of the attempt to seize the banner, taken by an eyewitness at 1:13:59, 1:14:00 and 1:14:03 p.m.; four photographs from the same witness of police holding back the counter-demonstrators, timed by her to 1:14:23 through 1:14:36 p.m.; four photographs of Xin Qin’s injuries; and first-hand accounts from the victim and from two eyewitnesses, given in Chinese with English translations.

Context

In recent years there have been repeated incidents in the United States and elsewhere in which Falun Gong practitioners distributing information or holding banners about human rights abuses in China were assaulted by passers-by or counter-demonstrators. This is the latest case in a pattern.

Two witnesses say Li Huahong is known to them from confrontations with Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, Queens. One witness stated that she first encountered Li in 2008, when she says Li was already taking an active part in actions against practitioners there. These are the witnesses’ characterizations and have not been independently verified for this draft.

Li has led the Queens-based Chinese Anti-Cult World Alliance (CACWA), which is described as an overseas offshoot of a Chinese state-linked anti-Falun Gong network, and she has been accused of harassing practitioners for years. She was criminally charged with assault in Queens in 2013, and practitioners reported that she and others linked to CACWA harassed them during Xi Jinping’s November 2023 visit to San Francisco.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice. It pairs meditation exercises with moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. The Chinese Communist Party banned the practice in 1999 and launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Practitioners in China have since been held without trial, sent to forced labor and tortured. Researchers and an independent tribunal have found evidence that some were killed for their organs.

The CCP’s persecution follows practitioners abroad. Two days before this incident, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing on people targeted by the CCP. Falun Gong spokesman Erping Zhang testified, a day before Xi Jinping arrived in Washington. He cited a Falun Dafa Information Center report counting more than 600 incidents of transnational repression against practitioners in the United States since 2020. Representative Chris Smith, who chaired the hearing, said practitioners here have reported surveillance, harassment, threats, physical assaults and reprisals against relatives in China. He noted that the Justice Department has prosecuted people for acting as agents of Beijing against Falun Gong practitioners on American soil.

Location

Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC, at the 1200 block. The practitioners held their banners on the sidewalk opposite the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters. One group of counter-demonstrators stood immediately beside them on that sidewalk; a larger group gathered across the street at the EPA entrance. The attempts to seize a banner took place where the practitioners stood. The assault took place on the opposite sidewalk, after Xin Qin crossed over to photograph the banners from the other side.

Timeline

All times are based on witness accounts..

Thursday, September 24, morning: Falun Gong practitioner Xin Qin began holding a “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong” banner on the sidewalk of Constitution Avenue NW, opposite the EPA building. She was alone at first and later joined by two other practitioners. Across the street, outside the EPA entrance, a group of middle-aged Chinese women gathered to welcome Xi Jinping and shouted insults in Mandarin at Falun Gong and its founder. A second, younger group stood immediately beside the practitioners carrying flags that appeared to identify a hometown association welcoming Xi. Members of that group repeatedly pressed closer to the practitioners. Police intervened and separated the two groups.

Around midday: Three more practitioners joined, bringing the Falun Gong group to six or seven.

Early afternoon: The pro-Beijing side sang Chinese Communist Party songs. ZXH, who describes the scene from about 1 p.m. onward, recalls lyrics along the lines of “down with American imperialism” and “take the broadsword to the American imperialists.” She does not say when the singing started or how long it lasted.

Shortly after 1:00 p.m.: The adjacent group again moved in on the practitioners. A middle-aged woman shouted at Xin from behind, “Do you know who I am?” and “You’d better be careful.” She pulled at Xin’s clothing and, according to two witnesses, tried to pull the banner out of Xin’s hands. Xin moved aside without responding. A witness photographed the exchange; the capture data on those three files places them between 1:13:59 and 1:14:03 p.m. The same witness shouted to uniformed officers standing nearby, and they ran over and blocked Li. Her next four photographs, which she times to 1:14:23 through 1:14:36 p.m., show officers keeping the counter-demonstrators back. A second woman, in sunglasses and carrying a red Chinese flag, then came across the street, cursing at the practitioners and also going for the banner; officers blocked her too. The witness photographed this as well. Xin said she did not know the woman at the time and was later shown a photograph and told her name was Li Huahong.

Approximately 3:23 p.m. (the time one eyewitness gives): Xin crossed to the opposite sidewalk to photograph the banners. After about a minute she started back. Li Huahong and several others formed a line, blocked her path, and advanced; Xin backed up and tried to go around them without success.

Moments later: Li seized Xin with both hands and brought her to the ground. Xin’s elbow, the back of her right hand, and her right knee struck the pavement; the corner of her phone cracked. Several others ran up shouting “Why did you push her?” and began striking her head, face, and body while she lay on her back. Li pinned her and bit her leg. Someone attempted to take her phone. Xin shouted repeatedly for police.

Immediately after: Practitioners across the street called out to officers nearby. Two officers ran over and broke up the group. One handcuffed Li; the other helped Xin to her feet.

Photos

Captions describe what is visible in each frame. Times are read from the files’ embedded capture data, which puts all three banner photographs on September 24, 2026, between 1:13:59 and 1:14:03 p.m. EDT — matching the “after 1 p.m.” in all three accounts. The four police photographs reached us stripped of metadata; their times come from the photographer, who read them in her phone’s photo app. The injury photographs carry no capture data and no time has been supplied for them, so they cannot be placed in the sequence.

The attempt to seize the banner, 1:13–1:14 p.m.

Police holding back the counter-demonstrators, 1:14 p.m.

Four more photographs from the same eyewitness, covering what happened immediately after she called the officers over. These four reached us with their metadata stripped, so the times below are as the photographer read them in her phone’s photo app and gave them to us, not from the files themselves. They run from 20 seconds to 33 seconds after the last banner photograph.

Injuries

Xin Qin is wearing a purple coat in the photographs above and a grey jacket in those below. She had the purple coat on over the grey one during the attempt to seize the banner at about 1 p.m., and it came off during the assault.

Witness and victim reports

Report 1: First-hand account from the assault victim

九月二十四日，在華盛頓有美中領導人峰會，我和一些法輪功學員志願到華盛頓，表達和平訴求，要求中共停止迫害法輪功。

從上午開始，我就在憲法大道環境保護署的大樓對面人行道上打出”停止迫害法輪功”橫幅，剛開始就我一個人，後來加進來兩位同修。對面人行道上，就是環境保護署的大樓門口，有中共請來的歡迎習近平的一群華人，女的，都是中年女的，多穿的花花綠綠，在我們正對面用中文普通話罵大法，罵師父。我這個旁邊是另一群華人，男男女女，都是年輕一點的，他們打著旗幟，寫的好像是某某同鄉會歡迎習近平等等。他們也在罵我們，而且不斷地想靠近我們，擠我們，好像想把我們趕走的樣子。期間，有警察過來，阻止他們，又將我們和他們兩個群體隔離開。

中午又有三位同修過來加入我們打橫幅。下午一點多，我們旁邊的那群人又開始靠近，擠我們。有人在我后面大声的吼，”你知道我是谁吗？”我回頭看，吓一跳，看到靠我非常近，是個非常兇的中年女的。她沖我吼，”你得小心一點。”我沒有理她。她一邊罵，一邊用手扯我衣服，像是要搶我的橫幅。我只是避讓她，既沒有說什麼，也沒有還手。那個時候，我並不認識那個中年女人，後來有同修給我看照片，說這個女人叫李華紅，在紐約法拉盛騷擾、攻擊法輪功學員很多年了。

後來，我讓其他同修幫忙拉橫幅，自己走過街對面，準備給我們這邊的橫幅拍幾張照片。還只拍幾張，一分鐘吧，我趕緊向過街人行道往回走。那個中年女人，就是李華紅，還有幾個人，他們就几个人是一排，堵住我，不讓我走。他們往前逼近我，我只能後退。我換了方向，想繞開他們，他們仍然緊逼跟著我。

李華紅就突然两个手抓住我，把我往她身上放，然后她自己往后倒。但是是因为这个动作对我来说很突然，我的手也没有伸出去。她拉我到落地是非常迅速的。我的肘子、右手背和右膝蓋触地了，當時都破了。我拿著的一個手機的角也碎了。我的膀子不能抬到 90 度。他們幾個人一哄而上，一边沖我大叫，”你为什么推她？你为什么推她？”他們就是撒谎，好像找一个理由来打我。接著他们就全上來打我。我是仰面朝天躺在地上的，手一直是抱着我的腰包和紧紧抓着手机。李華紅壓在我身上，咬我的腿。其他人打了我的頭、臉，和身上其他地方，還有人搶我的手機。我只記得我不停地喊，”Police！Police！”不知道他們打了我多久，直到有警察將李華紅從我身上拉起來，銬上手銬。

Translation: On September 24 there was a US–China leaders’ summit in Washington. Some fellow Falun Gong practitioners and I volunteered to go to Washington to make a peaceful appeal, calling on the Chinese Communist Party to stop persecuting Falun Gong.

Starting in the morning I held up a “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong” banner on the sidewalk of Constitution Avenue, across from the Environmental Protection Agency building. At first I was alone; later two fellow practitioners joined me. On the sidewalk opposite, at the entrance to the EPA building, there was a group of Chinese people brought in by the CCP to welcome Xi Jinping — all women, all middle-aged, most dressed in brightly colored clothes. Directly across from us they cursed Dafa and cursed our teacher in Mandarin. Beside me was another group of Chinese people, men and women, all somewhat younger. They carried flags that appeared to read something like “such-and-such hometown association welcomes Xi Jinping.” They were also cursing us, and they kept trying to move closer and press in on us, as if they wanted to drive us away. During this period police came over, stopped them, and separated our two groups.

At midday three more practitioners came and joined us in holding the banner. After 1 p.m. the group beside us again began moving in and pressing against us. Someone behind me shouted loudly, “Do you know who I am?” I turned around and was startled to find a very fierce-looking middle-aged woman extremely close to me. She shouted at me, “You’d better be careful.” I ignored her. While cursing she pulled at my clothes with her hand, as though she wanted to grab my banner. I only moved aside; I neither said anything nor struck back. At the time I did not know who that middle-aged woman was. Later a fellow practitioner showed me a photograph and told me the woman was named Li Huahong, and that she had been harassing and attacking Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, New York, for many years.

Afterwards I asked other practitioners to help hold the banner and walked across the street, intending to take a few photographs of our banners. I had taken only a few shots, perhaps a minute, before I started back along the crosswalk. That middle-aged woman, Li Huahong, and several others formed a line, blocked me, and would not let me pass. They pressed toward me and I could only back up. I changed direction, trying to go around them, but they kept closing in on me.

Li Huahong suddenly seized me with both hands, pulled me against her, and then let herself fall backwards. Because the movement was so sudden, I did not get my hands out. She pulled me to the ground very quickly. My elbow, the back of my right hand, and my right knee hit the ground and were scraped open. The corner of the phone I was holding cracked. I could not raise my arm to 90 degrees. Several of them rushed in at once, shouting at me, “Why did you push her? Why did you push her?” They were simply lying, as if looking for a reason to beat me. Then they all set on me. I was lying face up on the ground with my hands around my waist pack, gripping my phone tightly. Li Huahong pressed down on top of me and bit my leg. The others hit my head, my face, and other parts of my body, and someone tried to grab my phone. All I remember is shouting over and over, “Police! Police!” I do not know how long they beat me, until a police officer pulled Li Huahong off me and put her in handcuffs.

Xin Qin

The two eyewitnesses are identified by the codes LFH and ZXH, drawn from their names, to protect their privacy.

Report 2: First-hand account from eyewitness LFH

大概九月二十四日下午一點多，我們六、七位法輪功學員在憲法大道環境保護署的大樓對面人行道上打出”停止迫害法輪功”橫幅。我們學員包括辛勤和ZXH。李華紅過去想搶辛勤拉著的橫幅。辛勤就躲了幾次，沒有讓她搶去。

然后大概又过了一段时间，大概是在 3 点 23 分的时候。然后那个辛勤啊，她就跑到街对面去了。這時候，我聽到有個同修喊，”快報警報警，打人了！”我看到街對面，李華紅和幾個人在追辛勤，接著把辛勤弄倒地上去了，還打了辛勤。我當時用手機拍視頻，錄了整個過程，包括辛勤退了几步，李華红进了几步，然后怎么把她撲倒。我們很急，不停喊警察。後來两个警察就冲过去了，制止了李華紅他們。

Translation: At around 1 p.m. on September 24, six or seven of us Falun Gong practitioners were holding up a “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong” banner on the sidewalk of Constitution Avenue, across from the Environmental Protection Agency building. Our group included Xin Qin and ZXH. Li Huahong went over and tried to snatch the banner Xin Qin was holding. Xin Qin dodged several times and did not let her take it.

Then some time passed — it was around 3:23 p.m. Xin Qin went across to the other side of the street. At that point I heard a fellow practitioner shout, “Call the police, call the police, someone’s being beaten!” Across the street I saw Li Huahong and several others going after Xin Qin; then they brought her down to the ground and beat her. I was recording video on my phone at the time and captured the whole sequence, including Xin Qin backing up several steps, Li Huahong advancing several steps, and how she took her down. We were frantic and kept shouting for police. Two officers then rushed over and stopped Li Huahong and the others.

LFH

Report 3: First-hand account from eyewitness ZXH, who photographed the attempt to seize the banner and alerted police

大概九月二十四日下午一點多，我們六、七位法輪功學員在憲法大道環境保護署的大樓對面人行道上打出”停止迫害法輪功”橫幅。我們旁邊有一群打惡黨（中國共產黨）紅旗的華人，街對面也有他們的人舉著惡黨旗。他們不停的罵我們，騷擾我們。他們還唱著惡黨的歌，其中有”打倒美帝國主義，大刀向美帝國主義砍去”之類的歌詞。李華紅看起來是這群人的一個頭，她在街兩邊走來走去。我在 2008 年就認識李華紅了，她那個時候就積極參加在紐約法拉盛打壓法輪功學員。

辛勤在拉住一條橫幅，李華紅就過去扯辛勤，想搶橫幅。辛勤不停地躲閃。我看到不遠處有幾個穿警察制服的人，就大聲喊他們過來處理。警察立即跑過來攔住李。這時候，從街對面沖過來一個戴墨鏡舉邪黨紅旗的女人，她一邊罵我們一邊也想搶我們的橫幅。她跟李華紅是一伙的。不過警察也攔住了她。這些我都給拍照了。

後來，辛勤過去街對面拍照，結果馬上被李華紅幾個人圍攻了。我雖然在這邊街，但是能夠看到是李華紅將辛勤拽倒了，因為李的衣服帽子我認識，也看到他們打了辛勤。我就赶緊喊我身邊的警察，告訴他那邊我的朋友被打了，那頭没人管了，那头没有人动啊。这警察看到了，马上的登登登就跑过去了。然后把辛勤给抱着给弄起来了。

Translation: At around 1 p.m. on September 24, six or seven of us Falun Gong practitioners were holding up a “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong” banner on the sidewalk of Constitution Avenue, across from the Environmental Protection Agency building. Next to us was a group of Chinese people holding the red flags of the evil party (the Chinese Communist Party), and there were more of their people across the street holding the party’s flag. They cursed and harassed us constantly. They also sang party songs, with lyrics along the lines of “down with American imperialism” and “take the broadsword to the American imperialists.” Li Huahong appeared to be one of the leaders of this group; she walked back and forth between the two sides of the street. I have known of Li Huahong since 2008, when she was already actively taking part in actions against Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, New York.

Xin Qin was holding one of the banners, and Li Huahong went over and pulled at her, trying to take the banner. Xin Qin kept dodging. I saw several people in police uniform not far off and shouted for them to come and deal with it. The police immediately ran over and blocked Li. At that point a woman in sunglasses carrying a red party flag rushed across from the other side of the street, cursing at us and also trying to grab our banner. She is with Li Huahong’s group. The police blocked her as well. I photographed all of this.

Later, Xin Qin went across the street to take photographs and was immediately set upon by Li Huahong and several others. Although I was on this side of the street, I could see that it was Li Huahong who pulled Xin Qin to the ground, because I recognized Li’s clothing and hat, and I saw them beat Xin Qin. I immediately called out to the police officer beside me and told him my friend was being beaten over there and that no one was dealing with it—nobody over there was doing anything. The officer saw it and ran straight over. Then he took hold of Xin Qin and helped her up.

ZXH