Violence and Threats Against Falun Gong Escalate in Flushing

A Falun Gong information booth in Flushing, Queens, NY, was violently attacked on April 29, amid a wave of threatening messages and incidents that are increasingly targeting Falun Gong practitioners and their families in the city. Over the past month, multiple threatening messages and at least two false alarm bomb threats that lead to building evacuations have occurred in Flushing. The latest threats and assaults fit within a broader Chinese Communist Party (CCP) campaign of intimidation and disinformation against Falun Gong over the past two years.

Violence at the subway entrance

At approximately 10:33 a.m. on Tuesday, April 29, a tall young Chinese man dressed in green and wearing sunglasses approached the information booth operated by the Global Tuidang Center, an NGO founded by Falun Gong practitioners to help educate people around the world about communism and the depravity of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He suddenly began kicking the booth’s structure, including the frame and table, causing visible damage to the setup and deforming the structure.

In addition to the physical assault on the booth, the man who identified himself as “Fan Yang” (phonetic) shouted threats and insults at the practitioners who were present. When the practitioners moved to intervene, he suddenly collapsed in a transparent ploy to feign injury and falsely accused them of assaulting him, only to rise moments later and stroll away apparently unharmed.

Practitioners on site were able to prevent further damage and ensure the safety of nearby individuals. No serious injuries were reported.

This is not the first time Falun Gong booths and practitioners have faced hostility in Flushing’s Chinatown, a neighborhood with a history of tensions surrounding the spiritual practice, which is banned and heavily persecuted in mainland China. The Falun Dafa Information Center also reported attacks on the booths and practitioners in 2008, as well as more recently, in 2022 and 2023.

Threats before attacks

In the week leading up to the attack on April 29, the Global Tuidang Center received at least five threatening messages. One email, dated April 28, unleashed graphic promises of violence against Flushing’s Falun Gong community and their families:

“All Flushing protesters and their family members will be hacked to death! Their children will also go missing and be found again! Their children’s body parts will be found in downtown Washington!! Their female family members will be gang-raped, have their throats cut and dumped in downtown New York City! The male family members will have a car accident and be run over! I swear to Mazu, Jesus, God, and Guanyin Bodhisattva! This! Will! Happen in the near future!”

Remarkably, that identical threat was submitted via the Falun Dafa Information Center’s online contact form targeting the same individuals. Moreover, on April 27, the Global Tuidang Center’s own contact form received a similar warning—this time aimed not only at practitioners in New York but also at Falun Gong supporters nationwide (including in Taiwan), as well as dignitaries and celebrities who support them. It proclaimed:

“All Falun Gong members and their supporters in the United States and Taiwan, including dignitaries, celebrities and entertainers who support Falun Gong, as well as their family members, will be in danger in the near future! Shot! Kidnapped! Car accidents! Fire at their homes! Vehicles will explode! I swear to Jesus, this is not a joke!!!”

Together, these communications paint a chilling picture of a coordinated effort to terrorize practitioners and undermine Falun Gong’s peaceful efforts to counter CCP censorship and propaganda in the United States.