Falun Gong Booth in New York Attacked After Receiving Terror and Bomb Threats

Falun Gong practitioners call on the United States to designate China’s ruling CCP as a terrorist organization.

A Chinese man who identified himself as Fan Yang (R) attacked volunteers at a Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP booth in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York on April 29, 2025. Courtesy of Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP

NEW YORK—A man attacked and damaged one of the Falun Gong booths in New York on April 29, after members of the spiritual community reported receiving near-daily threats of bomb and terror attacks for over a week.

“The CCP’s acts of terror threaten the lives and property of the American people, threaten the security and stability of American communities, and undermine America’s foundation of religious freedom. We call on the United States to take this seriously and designate the CCP as a terrorist organization and a terrorist party,” the Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party stated.

The center had been the recipient of the recent threats aimed at the Falun Gong community in Flushing.

The New York-based center is a nonprofit organization formed in the wake of the global “Quit the CCP” (”Tuidang“) movement sparked by The Epoch Times’ 2004 publication of the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” in the Chinese language. The service center aids Chinese people in withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and has tracked more than 446 million withdrawals to date.

The series of threats began ahead of an anniversary of a key date related to the Chinese communist regime’s religious persecution of Falun Gong, and a day after thousands of Falun Gong practitioners held a parade and rally in Flushing, calling for an end to the CCP’s persecution and standing in support of more than 440 million Chinese people who have quit the CCP.

Threats Surrounding the April 25 Anniversary

On April 20, the service center received a message threatening a mass shooting of anyone wearing clothes with “Falun Gong” on April 25 in Flushing.

The date marks Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful appeal for their religious freedom on April 25, 1999, in Beijing. The practice, also known as Falun Dafa, teaches the three principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, and gained immense popularity upon introduction to the public in China in 1992.

The Chinese communist regime launched a violent persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on July 20, 1999, under which practitioners have been victims of human trafficking and live organ harvesting.

Since then, Falun Gong practitioners around the world annually commemorate the April 25 appeal with parades and gatherings aimed at raising awareness about the ongoing religious persecution. The Flushing neighborhood of New York City, home to a large Chinese-speaking population, has for years been the site of a parade and rally held by Falun Gong practitioners around April 25. This year, the event was held on April 19, a Saturday.

From April 20 to April 28, the center received six messages threatening bomb attacks, shootings, car accidents, rapes, abduction of children, and other acts of terror, largely targeting Falun Gong practitioners and supporters.

On April 20, multiple Queens Public Library branches received fake bomb threats, demanding that they block events related to Falun Gong.

An official with the New York City Police Department’s 109th Precinct confirmed that the emails the center and libraries received are similar, and that the IP addresses of the emails are in China.

Cybersecurity experts who recently assessed similar emailed threats told The Epoch Times that they believe the emails came from the Chinese regime or its operatives.

Eyewitness Account

In Flushing, Falun Gong practitioners and volunteers with the Global Service Center for Quitting often have a booth set up near the Main Street subway station, with materials about how to quit the CCP, as well as information about Falun Gong.

Chen Yikui, a Falun Gong practitioner, was nearby and passing out pamphlets the morning of April 29 when Chen saw a Chinese man dressed in green walk over and begin kicking the booth, almost knocking it over.

“I felt that with his strength and speed, if I hadn’t gone over to stop him, he would have kicked it apart,” Chen told The Epoch Times. 

Chen said the man also yelled at a practitioner to hit him, as if trying to incite a fight. A video taken of the incident and viewed by The Epoch Times mirrors Chen’s account.

Chen said that the man had also taken a call during that time and that he wondered whether he was being directed to attack the booth. When Chen asked the man why he was kicking the booth, the man, who identified himself as Fan Yang, said he didn’t like them, and that no one had sent him.

Chen said that Fan accused the practitioners of illegally setting up the booth, and Chen replied that they are exercising their First Amendment rights, and the police who routinely patrol by the booth greet them normally.

Some of the Falun Gong practitioners who distribute pamphlets in Flushing have experienced firsthand the CCP’s persecution in China, such as detention and torture, and find the harassment and recent threats characteristic of the regime. Chen said that if the threats had really been carried out, the CCP would seal its fate as a “terrorist organization.”

The service center has reported the incident to the local police and the FBI.

Along with the email threats, Chen said that he and a few other practitioners experienced harassment while they were doing their daily morning exercises in Kissena Park in Flushing from April 30 to May 2. Some onlookers, apparently Chinese, played Chinese music at high volume, and insulted them and Falun Gong.

He said that this kind of harassment has never happened before and that he believes it is part of the same campaign.

Chen said he chose to ignore the hecklers and continued to meditate on the mat with his eyes closed. However, the actions were disturbing, he said.

It reminded him of similar incidents when Chinese undercover police and agents tried to disrupt their morning exercises by pouring water or sweeping dust over them, just before the persecution of Falun Gong officially began in China, Chen said.