Finland Condemns Former Hong Kong Chief’s Threat Against Falun Gong, Calling It ‘Unacceptable’

‘Intimidation of or threats against the civil society are not acceptable,’ the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs told The Epoch Times.

Leung Chun-ying, former Hong Kong chief executive and his wife, Regina Leung Tong Ching-yee, in a confrontational exchange with Falun Gong practitioners in Sibelius Park, Helsinki, on Aug. 13, 2025. Courtesy of Helsinki Falun Gong practitioners

The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has responded to threats made by a former Hong Kong leader against Falun Gong practitioners in a public park, describing the threats as “unfortunate” and “unacceptable.”

“Finland is an open society where freedom of assembly and expression are fundamental rights, protected by the constitution,” the ministry told The Epoch Times. “Intimidation of or threats against the civil society are not acceptable.”

Days earlier, Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s chief executive from 2012 to 2017 and now vice chairman of communist China’s top political advisory body, walked up to a Falun Gong information booth in Helsinki’s Sibelius Park, a popular tourist attraction. Practitioners of the faith were collecting signatures from the public to counter the ongoing human rights abuses against Falun Gong in China.

Leung became confrontational and asked for the personal information of the people manning the booth, according to witnesses.

“Once we have your names, we can immediately look you up once we are back, one by one,” Leung said in video footage obtained by The Epoch Times.

When one Falun Gong practitioner dismissed the threat, Leung turned to her and said, “Who do you think you are?”

The incident has heightened anxiety among some Falun Gong practitioners, many of whom fled the communist regime’s persecution in China. One practitioner present, who had escaped China after living in fear for years, voiced concern for his family members who remain in the country.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Before the Chinese communist regime began to persecute the practice in 1999, Falun Gong practitioners often gathered to meditate in public parks.

Millions of practitioners in China have since been subjected to brutal persecution, including arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, and even death by forced organ harvesting. U.S. authorities under both the Trump and Biden administrations have imposed sanctions on Chinese communist officials for their involvement in human rights abuses against Falun Gong.

Throughout its 76-year history, the Chinese regime has persecuted and sought to control faith and conscience groups that it views as a threat to its power—an abuse that has been common to communist regimes throughout history.

Regina Leung Tong Ching-yee, wife of former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying, in a confrontational exchange with Falun Gong practitioners in Sibelius Park, Helsinki, on Aug. 13, 2025. Courtesy of Helsinki Falun Gong practitioners

Although Falun Gong is freely practiced in the West, the Chinese regime has ordered its agents overseas to expand their repression.

Taiwan recently sentenced a man for collecting intelligence on Falun Gong’s founder, and U.S. authorities have sentenced three men who helped gather the personal information of Falun Gong practitioners and other Chinese dissidents.

A former Chinese spy who defected to Australia told The Epoch Times that his handler asked him to locate a Thailand-based Falun Gong practitioner in 2021. The regime had supplied him with a number of photos showing the target with his family.