Chinese Tourists Assault Falun Gong in South Korea; European Court Rules Against Serbia for Restricting Protest

Dear Reader,

​Physical assaults targeting overseas Falun Gong practitioners’ public activities escalated over the past week. On June 2, three Chinese men attacked a peaceful Falun Gong assembly on Jeju Island, South Korea, with verbal abuse, sabotage, and physical violence, injuring two elderly practitioners. Korean police arrested all three perpetrators and reportedly intend to forward the case to prosecutors. Two days later, a Falun Gong information site outside the British Museum in London was targeted in two rounds of sabotage in which attackers tried to destroy banners exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) persecution of Falun Gong.

Both sites have faced harassment and assaults over the years, like many other locations around the world where Falun Gong practitioners seek to raise awareness. The attacks reflect a key tactic of the CCP’s transnational repression: using physical intimidation and assault to silence practitioners and stop them from exposing the ongoing human rights abuses in China.

These attacks follow the playbook documented in our latest testimony submitted to the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) for its June 4 hearing on transnational repression. In it, we warned that the CCP’s escalating campaign against Falun Gong poses a serious national security threat.

Also in this issue:

• Two elderly women in China stripped of pensions and savings for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.

• European Court of Human Rights rules Serbia unlawfully banned a Falun Gong protest during Xi Jinping’s 2016 visit.

• A Maryland accountant calls for the release of her mother, detained in Wuhan since April.

​Finally, we close with a short documentary exposing the actions and origins of China’s “610 Office,” an extralegal entity often called China’s Gestapo, which was established on June 10, 1999, to carry out the brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

Three Chinese Men Arrested for Attacking Falun Gong Assembly in South Korea

What’s new?

On June 2, 2026, three Chinese men attacked an outreach activity of Falun Gong and injured at least two practitioners on Jeju Island, South Korea, despite being warned that anyone obstructing a lawful assembly would face imprisonment or a fine under Korean law. Korean police indeed arrested all three at the scene. The assailants, presumed to be Chinese tourists, were held at a local police station and face allegations of obstructing a lawful assembly, assault causing injury, and destruction of property.

On that day, eight practitioners were displaying banners and boards near a popular duty-free store to inform tourists and visitors about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. Around 6 p.m., three Chinese men approached the site and began shouting, “Stop doing this!” and “Take it down!” Practitioners tried to dissuade them, explaining that their activities were lawful in democratic South Korea, only to be met with continued intimidation and then violence.

One of the men, dressed in black, snatched a sign from an elderly female practitioner, knocked her down, and slammed the sign to the ground. He then kicked a standing board that displayed information about the persecution. Another man struck one practitioner on the left side of the face, then twisted the hand of another elderly practitioner who tried to intervene and hyperextended his arm, leaving him unable to use his hand properly for about a day. The two practitioners later gave statements to police and submitted medical certificates documenting their injuries.

Park Dong-seok, the organizer of the outreach activity and coordinator of the Jeju chapter of the South Korean Falun Dafa Association, confirmed that police intend to forward the case to prosecutors.

Why does it matter?

The June 2 assault reflects a recurring pattern—violence and intimidation by Chinese tourists or nationals against Falun Gong practitioners and rights groups on Jeju Island over the years. In October and November 2023 alone, at least seven separate attacks on Falun Gong information booths took place on the island.

This is consistent with the CCP’s broader transnational repression campaign against Falun Gong worldwide. In 2026 alone, multiple physical assaults against Falun Gong volunteers at information sites occurred in New York, London, and other cities, as documented by the Falun Dafa Information Center. Even when not directed by the regime itself, the attacks illustrate the vicious hatred inculcated in many Chinese people by the CCP’s demonizing and deceptive propaganda about Falun Gong.  

What else do you need to know?

In the past, most tourists who committed such acts in South Korea had left the country before they could be identified or punished, making it impossible for victims to recover damages, according to Mr. Park’s June 3 petition to the Jeju Seobu Police Station. In the petition, he urged thorough investigation, strict punishment, and an exit ban on the perpetrators where applicable.

“In targeting Falun Gong, these attackers allegedly violated Korea’s laws,” said Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center. “The Korean police did the right thing by arresting them on the spot. What concerns us is what happens next. Some past cases indicated that the attackers simply flew home before facing any consequences, and that is the outcome Beijing is counting on. We urge Korean authorities to see this case through.”

After Years of Imprisonment, Two Elderly Women Face Financial Ruin Under Beijing’s Campaign Against Falun Gong

In China, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners often does not end when they leave prison. Since the campaign began in 1999, the Chinese regime has used money as a weapon: stripping believers of their pensions, jobs, and savings. Many elderly adherents are told they can keep their pension or receive basic support—but only if they sign a statement renouncing their faith. They must choose between their beliefs and their survival.

The stories of two women show what this really means.

Cong Peishan is now 87. She came home from prison in Tianjin to find her pension cut off. Her husband had died while she was imprisoned, and no one had told her. The government offered her a small payment to live on, but only if she gave up Falun Gong. She said no. So they gave her nothing.

Li Xianghong is 63. She was once a respected college teacher in Xinjiang. After serving two prison terms for her faith, she was fired, and 16 years of pension savings vanished. Her marriage and her health coverage were gone too.

Neither woman did anything wrong. Yet both were left old, alone, and with no income.

European Court: Serbia Unlawfully Banned Falun Gong Protest During Xi Jinping’s Visit

When Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited Serbia in 2016, the Serbian government banned a peaceful Falun Gong protest so he would not have to see any sign of dissent. Now, 10 years later, Europe’s top human rights court has said that was wrong.

On June 2, the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously that Serbia violated the right to peaceful assembly and the right to seek justice. The court found that Serbia had no real security reason for the ban—only the worry that someone might object to the protest.

The ruling points to a long pattern. Practitioners say Serbia has banned more than 20 of their peaceful gatherings over the years, always timed to please Beijing. As recently as 2024, police detained several practitioners during another visit by Xi. A 2025 report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists highlighted the incident among other cases of dissidents being harassed during Xi’s travels. 

Maryland Accountant Calls for Release of Her Mother Detained in Wuhan

Alisa Zhou and her mother

On April 15, 2026, Wang Youmei, the mother of a Maryland accountant, was arrested in Wuhan, Hubei Province, after months of covert police surveillance of two local Falun Gong study groups. Following 15 days of administrative detention, she was transferred to criminal detention at Wuhan No. 1 Detention Center, where she remains in custody. Ms. Wang, 61, has been repeatedly detained and tortured for her faith since 2000, including a year in a forced labor camp.

Her daughter, Alisa Zhou, has spoken outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., met with congressional staff, and written to her Maryland representatives, urging them to press for her mother’s immediate release. She has also called on Congress to pass the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act (S.4009) to hold perpetrators accountable for the ongoing human rights abuses in China.

Often called China’s Gestapo, the 610 Office was created on June 10, 1999, as an extralegal task force with a single mission: eliminate Falun Gong. Operating under the CCP’s top leadership and largely outside the law, it built branches across the country and wielded sweeping, unchecked power over practitioners’ lives.

This short documentary traces the office’s origins and its central role in directing the persecution. A 2018 restructuring reassigned much of its work to other security agencies, but the apparatus it built endures. The regime’s campaign against Falun Gong continues in full force with renewed intensity.