Falun Gong Practitioners Rally in New York During UN General Assembly

On the third day of the U.N. General Assembly, Falun Gong practitioners from the New York area gather at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza outside U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 25, 2025. They held banners, demonstrated Falun Gong exercises, and handed out leaflets. Tang Zhiheng/Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP

As world leaders gathered in Manhattan this week for the 80th United Nations General Assembly, Falun Gong practitioners held a series of peaceful protests outside U.N. headquarters, urging the international community to condemn the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutal persecution of the spiritual discipline since July 1999.

From Sept. 23 to 27, practitioners assembled daily across the street from the UN in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, where they displayed banners with messages in both Chinese and English that read “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong,” “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance,” and “End the CCP.” Participants said they want to raise awareness among delegates and visiting dignitaries of the continuing human rights abuses in China.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was first introduced to the public in China in 1992 and quickly grew in popularity, with at least 70 million people taking up the practice by the decade’s end, according to official estimates at the time.

Ever since the CCP, fearing that Falun Gong’s popularity threatened the regime’s power, launched a nationwide persecution campaign in 1999, human rights groups and U.N. experts have documented widespread arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and forced organ harvesting of practitioners.

The demonstrations outside the U.N. highlighted a recurring theme in international discussions, bringing attention to the issue of how governments should respond to the CCP’s human rights record while maintaining diplomatic and economic ties with the regime.

Local Support

Organizers said that NYPD officers, familiar with the group’s longstanding presence during major U.N. events, assisted them in setting up space for the demonstration.

“The police trust us more and more because they know we are always peacefully [demonstrating] against [the CCP’s] persecution,” said Tang, one of the event coordinators, who asked to only use his surname. He said officers helped by moving barricades and encouraging other groups to make room for the Falun Gong gathering.

Practitioners said they also received support from New Yorkers passing by the area.

“Many locals and even police officers smiled at us and gave us a thumbs-up,” said Huang, a practitioner who traveled from upstate New York, who requested to use only her surname. “Some people were touched to the point of tears when they heard what is happening to families like mine in China.”

She described one encounter with a young man carrying an American flag who stopped to listen after being handed a leaflet. “He told me he didn’t know much about Falun Gong, but after hearing my story, he wanted to pray for us,” Huang said.

Personal Accounts of Persecution

For some, the demonstration carried deep personal significance.

Huang recounted how her parents in mainland China were repeatedly targeted for practicing Falun Gong.

“My mother nearly died in a ’re-education' center after 1999, and my father was detained multiple times and even went missing,” she said. “The CCP’s persecution has run through my entire school life and career. That’s why my parents told me never to return to China.”

Practitioners Hugh Huang and his wife also participated in the demonstration. Born in Hong Kong, he said their purpose was to encourage more Chinese people to understand the truth about Falun Gong and why the CCP persecutes it. He expressed concern that the Chinese regime continues to use social media platforms such as WeChat and TikTok to spread misinformation domestically and abroad.

“Once more people in China awaken, the CCP will collapse naturally,” he said. “At that point, China will have a true future, Hongkongers can return home, and people in Taiwan will no longer live in fear.”

‘End CCP’ Car Parade

In parallel with the demonstration, the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP organized a car parade through the streets surrounding the U.N. complex. Cars carried large billboards with messages such as “CCP Corrupts the World,” “Communism puts everyone at risk,” and “Condemn CCP Organ Harvesting.” Organizers described the caravan as a “moving Great Wall of Truth” designed to attract the attention of delegates, commuters, and pedestrians in the area.

The Center’s president, Zhiyuan Wang, said the campaign’s purpose was to call on governments to formally designate the CCP as a “state terrorist organization.”

“Because the CCP persecutes Falun Gong, it has committed genocide and crimes against humanity—particularly the forced harvesting of organs from practitioners, which is an evil unprecedented in human history,” he said.

“This crime has now spread throughout Chinese society. In recent years, the CCP has also extended its reach into the United States, seeking to challenge the democratic freedoms of the international community, directly undermining America’s founding principle of religious liberty, while at the same time threatening Americans and U.S. national security.”

Michael Yu, another representative of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, said the peaceful approach of Falun Gong practitioners resonated with bystanders.

“People know Falun Gong is a faith group,” he said. “Falun Gong practitioners are one of the most peaceful groups, and people respect us for telling the truth and support our cause.”

During the U.N. General Assembly, the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP organized an “End CCP” car parade around the streets near U.N. headquarters in New York, exposing the CCP’s crimes against humanity and calling for its dissolution. Lin Dan/The Epoch Times

A Global Concern

Demonstrators said their appeals were not only a matter of religious freedom in China but also part of a broader resistance against authoritarian influence abroad.

“The CCP is destroying America’s traditional values and exploiting divisions in U.S. society,” said Hugh Huang’s wife. “This is something that pains many patriotic Americans.”

She added that one of her friends, after hearing her testimony, borrowed a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, and was deeply moved after reading it. “He felt as though he had been deceived by the CCP for years and had finally found something precious,” she said.

Lin Dan and Yu Lili contributed to this report.