Falun Gong Practitioner Assaulted During Xi’s Washington Visit; U.S. Moves to Strip Citizenship from CCP Agent

Dear Reader,

Last month, Xi Jinping made his first visit to Washington in a decade. On Sept. 24, the day he was hosted at the White House, supporters of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) gathered on the streets of the nation’s capital. They sang songs with anti-American lyrics, and some harassed Falun Gong practitioners who were peacefully protesting the persecution. Several of them then knocked one practitioner to the ground and beat her, leaving her injured and unable to fully raise her arm.

CCP leaders’ visits abroad have repeatedly been accompanied by reports of violence against protesters and efforts to suppress dissent. We are grateful to the police officers who stepped in and handcuffed the assailant. Now we urge authorities to go further by treating attacks like this one as the transnational repression they are and holding the attackers accountable.

Also in this issue:

• In Toronto, a man in a PRC-flag jacket tore down Falun Gong banners outside the Chinese Consulate and threatened to have a practitioner shot.

• The U.S. Department of Justice is moving to revoke the citizenship of a convicted CCP agent who spied on Falun Gong practitioners, the first such move in many years.

• Hundreds of practitioners rallied, exhibited art, and held a candlelight vigil in Washington during Xi’s visit.

​Finally, I’d like to share a short video of our advocacy officer, Mark Yang, welcoming the Senate’s unanimous passage of the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

Falun Gong Practitioner Assaulted by Pro-CCP Group Near U.S.–China Summit in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Constitution Ave, Washington, DC (Google Maps)

What’s new?

On September 24, while Xi Jinping was in Washington, D.C., for a summit with U.S. leaders, supporters of the CCP knocked middle-aged Falun Gong practitioner Xin Qin to the ground and beat her near the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters. She and fellow practitioners had been holding banners nearby that read “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong.”

Shortly after 1 p.m., a woman later identified by two eyewitnesses as Li Huahong shouted at Ms. Xin, “Do you know who I am?” and “You’d better be careful.” She then tried to wrest Ms. Xin’s banner away until police intervened.

At about 3:23 p.m., as Ms. Xin returned from photographing the banners across the street, Li and several others blocked her path. Ms. Xin said Li seized her with both hands and pulled her to the ground. According to Ms. Xin, three or four others rushed in shouting “Why did you push her?” and struck her head, face, and body while Li pinned her down and bit her leg. “They were simply lying, as if looking for a reason to beat me,” Ms. Xin said. Police pulled Li off and handcuffed her. Ms. Xin was left with a scraped hand, knee, and elbow and limited movement in one shoulder.

Why does it matter?

The attack is yet another example of transnational repression by pro-CCP groups against Falun Gong practitioners in the United States. Two days earlier, Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang testified before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He cited the June report by the Falun Dafa Information Center, Americans Targeted by Beijing, which documented 646 such incidents against U.S. practitioners from 2020 to 2025. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who chaired the hearing, said practitioners have reported surveillance, harassment, threats, physical assaults, and reprisals against relatives in China.

Li Huahong is no stranger to Falun Gong practitioners. She co-chairs the Chinese Anti-Cult World Alliance (CACWA), a CCP-linked proxy organization that has targeted Falun Gong practitioners for years. In 2013, a Queens court convicted her of assault, and practitioners reported that she harassed them during Xi Jinping’s 2023 visit to San Francisco.

What else do you need to know?

The pro-CCP counter-demonstrators also sang CCP songs with anti-American lyrics. One eyewitness recalled lines such as “down with American imperialism” and “take the broadsword to the American imperialists.” Such slogans date back to the Mao era, when CCP propaganda, from the Korean War through the Cultural Revolution, cast the United States as China’s enemy.

Man in PRC-Flag Jacket Threatens to Have Falun Gong Practitioner Shot Outside Chinese Consulate in Toronto

A Mandarin-speaking man threatens to kill a Falun Gong practitioner outside the Chinese consulate in Toronto as he tears apart the practitioner’s banners. (Nora Geng)

On the morning of Sept. 22, a man in a jacket bearing the flag of the People’s Republic of China tore down Falun Gong banners and display boards outside the Chinese Consulate General in Toronto, where practitioners have held a peaceful information display for roughly 27 years. When Na Li, a 62-year-old practitioner, tried to stop him, he shoved her and threatened to have her shot. She was left bleeding from a cut to her chin. Speaking in Mandarin, he declared that the public sidewalk was Chinese territory. He then crossed the street, made a phone call, and was picked up by a car before police arrived.

Another practitioner caught the confrontation on video, and the clip was posted on X that night. Rebel News picked up the story and later parked a billboard truck outside the consulate asking for help identifying the man.

The incident bears the hallmarks of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) transnational repression. Toronto police are investigating, but as of Oct. 6, no suspect had been publicly identified or charged. The consulate has denied any connection to the man.

In the days that followed, practitioners held a press conference at the site, and more than 100 rallied outside Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa. On Oct. 1, China’s National Day, Hong Kong, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Chinese pro-democracy activists joined them in a protest outside the consulate. The Falun Dafa Information Center has called on Canadian authorities to identify and charge the man and to examine whether Canada’s 2024 Countering Foreign Interference Act applies to the case.

U.S. Moves to Strip Citizenship from CCP Agent Who Targeted Falun Gong

On Oct. 5, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it is moving to revoke the citizenship of Ping Li, a 61-year-old naturalized American who spied on Falun Gong practitioners and Chinese dissidents for the CCP. It may be the first time in many years, and possibly the first time ever, that the U.S. government has tried to strip a CCP agent of citizenship for carrying out transnational repression on American soil.

Li had been working for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) since at least 2012. Among other things, he gathered information on lawsuits that Falun Gong practitioners were preparing to file against Chinese officials. In 2014, his handler sent him the home address, phone number, and car details of a practitioner who had protested outside a Chinese consulate in California, and Li wrote back that same day. He also passed sensitive information from his U.S. employers to the MSS. In August 2024, he pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese regime.

“This case sets a clear precedent,” said Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center. “Anyone in the United States who works for the CCP to target Falun Gong or other groups persecuted in China, even if all they do is gather intelligence, can be convicted and even stripped of their citizenship.”

Falun Gong Practitioners Rally, Exhibit Art, and Hold Candlelight Vigil in Washington During Xi’s Visit

On Sept. 24, as President Trump hosted Xi Jinping at the White House, hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners gathered at the nearby U.S. Navy Memorial Plaza to call for an end to the CCP’s 27-year persecution of the spiritual practice. The day opened with a rally of more than 20 speakers, including Uyghur, North Korean, and religious freedom advocates.

Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), a co-sponsor of the House-passed Falun Gong Protection Act, said it was “a disgrace to our values as Americans” to welcome Xi “with a red carpet” given the CCP’s “systemic practice of organ harvesting.” Robert Destro, a former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, said Falun Gong is “so important to the discussion between the United States and China” because the movement “sees the Chinese Communist Party for what it is.”

Survivors and family members gave the rally its most personal testimony. Mr. Cheng Peiming, the only known survivor of forced organ harvesting, described how parts of his lung and liver were forcibly removed while he was imprisoned in China. “Give me back my lung. Give me back my liver,” he said. Alisa Zhou of Maryland told the crowd, “I am standing here for my mother, who cannot speak for herself.” Her mother, Ms. Wang Youmei, was taken into custody in Wuhan in April, her fifth arrest since 1999, and remains in detention.

The plaza also hosted the Art of Zhen Shan Ren International Exhibition, named for the Chinese words for Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, the core tenets of Falun Gong. Its paintings depict both the practice’s spiritual themes and the abuses practitioners endure in China. In the afternoon, practitioners demonstrated the five Falun Gong exercises. At dusk, they sat in silence with candles in hand, holding a vigil for those who have lost their lives in the persecution.

United States Capitol. Credit: Canva. Matt Anderson/Getty Images

On Sept. 28, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed S.4009, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act. Mark Yang, advocacy officer at the Falun Dafa Information Center, welcomed the vote and urged the House of Representatives to pass the bill quickly.