People in China and Globally Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day

Dear Reader,

When May comes each year, there is always a sense of gratitude in my heart, as there is in the hearts of millions of Falun Gong practitioners around the world. May 13, known as World Falun Dafa Day, marks the anniversary of Mr. Li Hongzhi’s introduction of Falun Dafa to the public and Mr. Li’s birthday—a day to express gratitude for teachings that have transformed countless lives, and to share the goodness of Falun Dafa with others.

This year, practitioners around the globe, inside and outside China, in cities and villages, young and old, are celebrating in their own ways. Those outside China gather for vibrant parades, performances, and public events. Those inside mainland China, despite over two decades of persecution, have never stopped marking this day, year after year, undeterred. We have gathered their messages and celebrations here, and hope to share with you the happiness, peace, and quiet courage behind them.

Also in this issue:

• A Ningxia practitioner who was only 55 years old died weeks before his scheduled release; authorities pressured his daughter to consent to immediate cremation before she could investigate the cause of death.

• The Falun Dafa Information Center and thirty-four human rights organizations urge U.S. senators to pass a bill targeting forced organ harvesting in China.

• The Washington Post profiles Weiyu Wang, a torture survivor now suing Cisco Systems at the Supreme Court.

• A look back at a historic moment: Mr. Li Hongzhi’s 1995 seminar in Paris, held at the invitation of the Chinese Embassy—the first time Falun Dafa was introduced to the Western world.

We close with a Fox News segment featuring a Falun Gong practitioner recounting her ordeal under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution.

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​As President Trump and a U.S. delegation land in Beijing for a high-profile summit and meetings with top Chinese officials, I hope they keep these stories in mind and call on CCP leaders to end the persecution of Falun Gong once and for all.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

Practitioners Around the Globe Celebrate the 34th Anniversary of Falun Dafa’s Public Introduction

What’s new?

May 13^th, known as World Falun Dafa Day, marks both the anniversary of Falun Dafa’s public introduction and the birthday of its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. This year, practitioners from diverse cultural backgrounds, ethnicities, and professions, come together to celebrate the 34th anniversary of Falun Dafa’s introduction to the public on May 13, 1992. They use a variety of ways to express gratitude to Mr. Li, their spiritual teacher, for bringing health, inner peace and a deeper meaning of life to them.

In mainland China, where an estimated 20 to 40 million practitioners remain unable to celebrate openly, adherents marked the occasion in quieter but no less meaningful ways. Thousands submitted congratulatory messages and works of art, including handwritten calligraphy, photographs, e-cards, Flash animations, poems, and essays, to Minghui.org, a platform through which practitioners inside China document their personal experiences and bear witness to the ongoing persecution that began in 1999.

Outside China, the day drew broad official recognition. Across multiple countries, government officials and lawmakers attended celebrations and issued formal statements of support. In Canada, 19 Members of Parliament spoke at a gathering on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, reaffirming their solidarity with practitioners and the universal values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.

Why does it matter?

Despite more than two decades of the CCP’s systematic campaign to slander and suppress Falun Gong, practitioners have continued to show the world—through annual celebrations and unbroken courage—who they are and what they stand for. Their commitment to the principles Mr. Li teaches has resonated far beyond the Falun Gong community, offering a powerful testament to the resilience of conscience against state repression.

What else do you need to know?

World Falun Dafa Day was first proposed by practitioners outside China and officially designated by Minghui.org in 2000, just months after the CCP launched its crackdown on the practice in July 1999. From its inception, the occasion has served as an open invitation for people of all nations and backgrounds to learn about Falun Dafa, even as practitioners faced severe hardships. Twenty-six years on, the day remains what it was always meant to be: a moment for the world to see Falun Dafa clearly, on its own terms, through the people who practice it.

Falun Gong practitioners in parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day at Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco on May 9, 2026. (Minghui.org)

Father Dies Weeks Before Release from Shizuishan Prison in Ningxia

You Haijun, a 55-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Zhongning County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, died on April 13, 2026—just weeks before his scheduled release on May 15. He had been serving a five-year sentence following his arrest on May 16, 2021. Throughout his incarceration, the family’s requests to visit him were repeatedly denied.

Prison authorities attributed Mr. You’s death to coronary heart disease, a claim his daughter disputed. Before she could pursue answers, prison authorities pressured her to sign a cremation consent form for his immediate cremation, reportedly threatening to withhold the body if she refused. The family has not yet informed Mr. You’s nearly 80-year-old mother of his death, fearing the news may be too much for her to bear.

Shizuishan Prison, where Mr. You was held, has been cited in multiple reports for the systematic use of psychological pressure and physical abuse aimed at forcing Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs. In prior documented cases, practitioners who endured severe mistreatment at the facility died shortly after their release.

U.S. Supreme Court’s Held Hearing on Falun Gong Practitioners’ Lawsuit to Hold Cisco Accountable for Its Complicity in the Persecution of Falun Gong

The Washington Post recently profiled William (Weiyu) Wang, a Falun Gong practitioner living in the United States, in connection with a Supreme Court case in which he and fellow practitioners are suing Cisco Systems for allegedly supplying the CCP with surveillance technology used to persecute them. The Court heard oral arguments on April 28 and is expected to issue a ruling in June.

Mr. Wang alleges that Chinese authorities used Cisco’s technology to monitor his online activity, leading to his arrest and imprisonment, during which he was subjected to torture. Despite writing anonymously and transmitting articles through encrypted files, prison officials told him they knew exactly what he had written, and about whom. He only learned the full scope of the surveillance, and Cisco’s alleged role in it, after his release in 2011.

Cisco’s alleged involvement in Chinese surveillance first drew public attention following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when an internal Cisco presentation was leaked to the media. The document cited a Chinese government official stating that the Golden Shield project for which Cisco was a vendor, could be used to “combat ‘Falun Gong’ evil religion and other hostiles,” a framing that drew scrutiny from Congress.

“I have no objection to normal business dealings,” Mr. Wang said. What Cisco did was different, he argued, because the company “knew what the CCP wanted to do” with its technology.

Joint Letter Urges U.S. Senators to Support Bipartisan Bill: Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act

On April 26, the Falun Dafa Information Center, together with 34 other human rights organizations, issued a joint letter urging U.S. senators to advance S.4009, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The bill would impose targeted sanctions on individuals responsible for forced organ harvesting in China and require the Secretary of State to report to Congress on the CCP’s organ harvesting policies and transplant system. It extends protections to all identified victim groups, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, and others subjected to forced organ removal.

The joint letter was organized by the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC). If passed, the bill represents a significant step toward binding federal legislation to hold perpetrators accountable and address forced organ harvesting and illegal organ trafficking. FDIC Executive Director Levi Browde and Senior Researcher Cynthia Sun co-signed the letter on the organization’s behalf.

Have you read this? The First Falun Gong Seminar in the West

In March 1995, Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), traveled to Paris at the invitation of the Chinese Embassy. The visit marked the first formal introduction of the practice outside China and a significant milestone in its worldwide spread.

This would be an unimaginable event today, given that the CCP launched a nationwide campaign to suppress the practice in 1999. Yet before that turning point, Falun Gong had been widely praised and supported by numerous CCP departments and government agencies at various levels, including embassies and police departments.

In the immediate aftermath of Mr. Li’s March 1995 seminar, participants in Paris began organizing group practice sessions in public spaces such as the Luxembourg Gardens. Similar gatherings soon emerged elsewhere in France and gradually spread throughout Europe. Today, Falun Gong has taken root in over 100 countries—from Boston to Berlin, Moscow to Mumbai, and Jerusalem to Jacksonville—a global presence that has proven instrumental in the practice’s sustained resistance against the CCP’s long-running persecution.

Falun Gong practitioner Wang Chunyan holds photographs of friends she says died during the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on the spiritual movement during an interview with Fox News Digital.  (Fox News)

On May 10, Fox News Digital featured the story of Wang Chunyan, a Falun Gong practitioner who survived the CCP’s persecution only to suffer the loss of her husband and more than two dozen of her fellow practitioners. Ms. Wang’s story is featured in China’s War on Faith, a new book by Sam Brownback, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.