While public expression in Hong Kong has been severely curtailed since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed its National Security Law in 2020, Falun Gong practitioners have continued to stand firm in their beliefs.
In areas frequented by tourists, such as Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay, adherents of the spiritual discipline can still be seen distributing materials that expose the CCP’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong and assisting locals and visitors in withdrawing from the party and its affiliated organizations.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that comprises five slow-moving exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Known for its physical and mental health benefits, the practice spread rapidly across the country soon after its introduction in 1992, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million people practicing it by 1999.
Considering its popularity as a threat to the communist regime, on July 20, 1999, then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong that continues to this day. Millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned and put into labor camps, where they are subjected to brainwashing and numerous forms of torture. Since at least 2006, the CCP has also been conducting forced organ harvesting of its prison population, with Falun Gong practitioners being the main victims.
As the CCP tightens its control over Hong Kong, the human rights situation in the former British colony has rapidly regressed. Unlike Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China, those in Hong Kong are still able to practice their faith, but their activities are being increasingly restricted. Sites in downtown Hong Kong where Falun Gong practitioners informed the public about the CCP’s human rights abuses were demolished by the Hong Kong government in 2021. Like other civil groups, they are also no longer able to hold any rallies or marches.
On July 20, the 26th anniversary of the start of the persecution, a woman with the surname Wong told The Epoch Times about her transformation from a CCP loyalist to becoming a volunteer to help others quit the Party. She began practicing Falun Gong in September 2015.
“I was suffering from pain and couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I tried injections, medication, acupuncture, massage, moxibustion, and even swimming, but nothing worked. A Falun Gong practitioner told me that practicing Falun Dafa would be good for my health.”
She recalled how she began practicing. “The first time I went to Kowloon Park to learn the exercises, I meditated for less than 10 minutes. But when I walked up a slope afterward, my legs felt so light, like someone was gently pushing me forward. That’s when I knew this practice was truly good.
“At the time, someone showed me information about Jiang Zemin’s persecution of Falun Gong, but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Still, as I kept practicing, my health quietly improved. Later, through reading [reporting by] The Epoch Times, I came to see how truly evil the CCP is. I realized that the CCP is not the same as China. Before that, I had equated the Party with the country.”
Wong said that she wore a blue ribbon at that time, and as her son participated in the Umbrella Movement, she often scolded him.
“I was too patriotic and couldn’t distinguish between the CCP and China,” she said. “When I heard that the CCP persecuted Falun Gong, I thought that if the CCP doesn’t allow people to practice Falun Gong, just don’t do it.”
Since the publication of the editorial “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” in 2004 by The Epoch Times, the number of people who have declared their withdrawal from the Party, League, and team organizations over the past two decades has reached 440 million.
Wong said that every day she would talk to a few people, and sometimes as many as dozens of people, who declared their withdrawal, many of whom were young men. Some of them told her that they got information from the outside world in mainland China by using software that bypasses the Chinese regime’s Great Firewall.
A young man from Shanghai said, as she recalled, “We also participated in the White Paper Movement”—a protest launched by Chinese mainlanders at the end of 2022 against the CCP’s draconian COVID-19 lockdown measures. Another tourist held Wong’s “Quit the Party” card in his hand and asked her to take a photo for him as a souvenir.
“Some older people are far more cautious, but, in fact, many of them know the evils of the Communist Party,” she said.
Wong recalled that once, when she talked to an elderly tourist about quitting the party and its affiliated organizations, he did not answer at first and refused to take her information. Wong then continued to talk to him.
“When we joined the Young Pioneers, we swore an oath to fight for communism for life, which was equivalent to joining its membership,” Wong said to him. “When God punishes [the party], we will share a part of its sin. At our age, you and I have experienced various [communist] campaigns. The Communist Party instigated the people to fight against each other. You fight me, I fight you. Who is hurt? It is the people. Meanwhile, those officials climbed higher and higher.”
Knowing the Truth
Another Falun Gong practitioner with the surname Li regularly displayed materials exposing the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. She told The Epoch Times that she often encountered mainland tourists who stood with their mouths agape when they saw her. They asked her, “Does Falun Gong still exist?”“Yes! Falun Gong is in more than 100 countries around the world, and only the Communist Party is suppressing and blocking the information from you,” she responded.
On the 26th anniversary of Falun Gong’s peaceful resistance to the persecution, Li said she wants “people all over the world to know that Falun Gong practitioners are resisting the persecution.”
“Today, I stand here to pass on this information.”
Wong highlighted the brutality of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and its harvesting the organs of living people, pointing out that it is not only Falun Gong practitioners, but the entire world that is in danger.
“I call on all Chinese people to recognize the distinction between the CCP and China,” Li said. “China and the CCP are two different entities. We must choose justice and conscience, erase the oath we made to the CCP, and God will bless us.”
