(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners held a rally in Philadelphia’s Chinatown on June 28, 2025, to call on the international community to help stop the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution and transnational suppression. They also did the Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) exercises, collected signatures, distributed fliers, and gave speeches.

Thirty-five Chinese people renounced the CCP and its affiliated organizations during the event.

Practitioners demonstrate the Falun Dafa exercises.

Falun Dafa practitioners held a rally in Chinatown on June 28.A practitioner condemns the CCP’s transnational suppression at the rally.

Scholar Condemns the CCP’s Transnational Suppression

At the rally, Dr. Mark Thomas, an assistant professor of international relations and political science at La Salle University, condemned the CCP’s transnational suppression.

Dr. Thomas said that the CCP took the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance as a threat, “It is that Falun Dafa has gained a large following as a community of individuals willing to think for themselves outside the confines of communist party ideology—this makes Falun Dafa an existential threat to the CCP.”

Dr. Thomas of La Salle University addressed the rally.

Dr. Thomas pointed out that the CCP conducts transnational suppression by spreading false information via mainstream media outlets to generate distrust of Falun Dafa. The CCP also attempts to suppress Falun Dafa and Shen Yun Performing Arts via personal attacks, bomb threats, unfounded lawsuits, and disinformation campaigns.

“Shen Yun uses their music and dance to promote the glory of Chinese traditional culture and values,” he said. “I have seen Shen Yun perform several times. They are amazing dance and symphonic performances, very advanced in technology, and warm.” He criticized certain Western media outlets for accepting the CCP’s rhetoric, saying that misunderstandings about Falun Gong spread like a virus, like typhoid or cholera. “The CCP poisons your mind just to make you not support a group that the CCP sees as a threat,” he said

“We need to speak out against this repression! We need to stand with Falun Gong and Shen Yun the same way people of faith stood with Martin Luther King on the bridge in Selma when they demanded equal rights for African Americans.”

Chinese Woman: From Being Misled to Knowing the Truth

Ms. Zhu, a doctor’s assistant from China, told how she’d been deceived by the CCP’s propaganda before discovering the truth about Falun Gong.

“I was brainwashed in China and thought Falun Gong was a cult. The only thing I could hear was what the CCP’s media said about Falun Gong and the self-immolation,” Ms. Zhu said. “When I was in China, I didn’t think about exploring the truth. I was completely brainwashed.

“After I came to the United States, I was able to read other sources of information and eventually learned the truth. Especially after the COVID pandemic, I learned about the CCP’s forced organ harvesting. I just couldn’t believe it. It’s so evil.”

Ms. Zhu expressed deep respect for practitioners’ persistence: “I admire their willingness to sacrifice for their belief and their perseverance. They are willing to dedicate themselves to their belief, just like us [Christians], and they are all worthy of respect.”

She emphasized the importance of freedom of belief: “Christians have the freedom to preach the gospel, and they also have the freedom to promote Falun Gong. As for who wants to choose what to believe in, it is everyone’s freedom.” She called for the CCP’s persecution to be exposed and stopped as soon as possible, especially the atrocity of the state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting: “This is no longer tolerable.

“Many doctors and medical teams in China might know that the organs they transplant are not sourced ethically or legally, but for economic benefits or promotions, they go along with it or become accomplices.” She called on more people to follow their conscience, stand up, and stop the CCP’s crimes.

People Speak Out in Protest of the Transnational Suppression

The rally highlighted the urgency of confronting the CCP’s transnational repression. Dr. Thomas pointed out that the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) is one of the tools the CCP uses to monitor Chinese students overseas. “The CCP monitors Chinese students and professors to ensure that they do not deviate from the CCP’s agenda, and they even harasses their families in China.”

He also called for responding to the CCP threat through legislation and the media: “We need to look beyond economic needs and focus on the CCP’s behavior as a threat to us and its people at home.”

Practitioners tell people about Falun Dafa and collect signatures on the petition calling for an end to the persecution.

Ms. Zhu condemned the CCP’s transnational suppression as, “blatant interference in other countries’ internal affairs.” She hopes the U.S. government takes tougher measures: “We need to learn more about the CCP’s harm to freedom and the United States, and we hope that more laws will be passed to sanction it.” She encouraged Falun Gong practitioners to continue to spread the truth, “which is beneficial to society."

Jeff Markley (on right) signs the petition.

Others who attended also expressed their support. Jeff Markley, an electronics technician in Philadelphia, said, “What the CCP is doing is horrible. It is literally ‘harvesting’ them [the organs of Falun Gong practitioners].” He encouraged raising public awareness: “The more people know, the more they can help stop this behavior.”

David Trawick (right) listens to a practitioner’s explanation.

David Trawick, a store manager in Philadelphia, was shocked when he first heard about the persecution, “I just heard about the forced organ harvesting in China, and it made me very sad.” He said he would learn more about it.