Vigil Attendees Mourn Persecution Victims, Seek End to China’s Export of Repression to US

The Chinese communist regime’s transnational repression on U.S. soil is of particular concern to attendees this year.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a candlelight vigil commemorating Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party in China, in Washington on July 17, 2025. Larry Dye/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—The soft, ambient glow of candlelight flickered in the evening breeze at the National Mall on July 17 during an annual vigil dedicated to practitioners of Falun Gong killed in China.

This year, attendees also called for an end to China’s export of repression to the United States.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a belief system based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, along with a set of meditative exercises.

Before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began arresting Falun Gong practitioners across China on July 20, 1999, authorities had praised the practice for its positive health benefits and for improving society by guiding practitioners to be better people.

Since its introduction in the early 1990s, the practice grew rapidly in the country, with an estimated 70 million to 100 million people learning it by 1999. But its popularity was deemed a threat to the Party, which unleashed a sweeping campaign to eliminate the faith group—a persecution that continues to this day.

The first-ever candlelight vigil in Washington was held in front of the Chinese embassy in October 1999, shortly after the news of the first confirmed death of the persecution reached the United States. Her name was Cheng Ying, a student in northeastern China. She was 17 when she died in police custody in August 1999, according to Minghui.org, a website dedicated to tracking the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Chen Chengyong, husband of Dai Zhizhen, was another casualty of the persecution who perished in 2001. The specific date of his death is still unknown. His body was discovered in a hut in a suburb in southern China’s Guangzhou in July and had already begun to rot.

Through the help of the Australian government, Dai, an Australian citizen, finally got her husband’s ashes back in Sydney in March 2002, eight months later.

Dai, now 62, choked up recalling her husband’s death. She said that her husband was one of the many who had been persecuted brutally.

“Every year at the vigil, we call for conscience and the kindness at the bottom of people’s hearts,” Dai told The Epoch Times. “The kindness embedded in each person at the time of creation.”

It was with the same spirit that Dai traveled to 46 countries between 2002 and 2005 to tell the story of Chen and many other practitioners to raise awareness of the persecution in China.

When Chen died, their daughter, Chen Fadu, was only 15 months old. Now, she works at Feitian Academy of the Arts after retiring as a dancer for Shen Yun Performing Arts, a performing arts group established by Falun Gong practitioners in 2006 to showcase traditional Chinese culture before communism took over the country.

Dai is particularly concerned that the CCP is pushing a new wave of persecution against Falun Gong in the United States.

In an exclusive report last year, The Epoch Times revealed that in October 2022, Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally directed China’s security, espionage, and influence operations to target Falun Gong practitioners in the United States with legal and public opinion warfare.

The Chinese regime’s transnational repression escalated as a result. Over the past year, multiple Western media outlets, led by The New York Times, published an unusually large number of hit pieces on practitioners of Falun Gong. Shen Yun also received multiple bomb threats ahead of its performances across the globe during its recent touring season.

Dai Zhizhen at a candlelight vigil commemorating Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party in China, in Washington on July 17, 2025. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

As a mother of a former Shen Yun dancer, Dai wants to tell her daughter’s story to help defend Shen Yun’s reputation.

“We had no choice other than to resist the persecution,” she said, referring to the overwhelming suppression that permeates all layers of society in China.

Although Fadu lost her father to injustice and grew up with only her mother, Dai said Fadu didn’t let that shadow her mind. Instead, the little girl has grown to be a “mature, rational, and loving person.” More importantly, she became more empathetic to others through her own suffering, said the mother proudly.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a candlelight vigil commemorating Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party in China, in Washington on July 17, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Falun Gong practitioners practice the exercises ahead of a candlelight vigil commemorating Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party in China, in Washington on July 17, 2025. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

‘Inflection Point’

Wen Ying is a 62-year-old Falun Gong practitioner who was released from seven years of imprisonment in China in 2023. She was also at the Washington event.

Wen described July 20, 1999, as a “dark day” and “inflection point” in life. She knew the risk she was facing: losing her job at a state-owned enterprise in northeastern China and even detention and imprisonment.

“Truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance is my faith. I think I should live with dignity and continue my path of being a good person, no matter what the Chinese regime’s policy was,” Wen told The Epoch Times.

She made the choice to stand up for her faith for a simple reason.

Wen Ying at a candlelight vigil commemorating Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party in China, in Washington on July 17, 2025. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

“My teacher teaches me to be a good person. I want to be a good person, too. Then, when he is slandered, how can I not clear his name?” she said, referring to the founder of the spiritual practice, Li Hongzhi.

So many lives in China have been lost due to the Chinese regime’s persecution, Wen said. In addition, the repression targets not just individuals and families, but the entire society.

In her view, persecuting the values of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance is akin to destroying mankind’s moral fabric.

“Our civilization will cease to exist if we lose the foundation of our morality,” she said.

Wen called for all kindhearted people to end the persecution in China and the regime’s transnational repression in the United States.

“I believe the good will prevail.”

Falun Gong practitioners ahead of a candlelight vigil commemorating Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party in China, in Washington on July 17, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times