Falun Gong Practitioners Call for Release of Chinese Practitioners at San Francisco Consulate

SAN FRANCISCO—More than 60 people demonstrated at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco on Aug. 7, calling for the immediate release of fellow Falun Gong practitioners who were detained in July by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Changchun, China.

At least 26 were arrested and three harassed as of July 22 in the city, according to Minghui.org, a website that documents the persecution of Falun Gong.

The protesters held a banner reading “Immediately Release Changchun Falun Gong Practitioners” and others with the names of those being detained. 

“Since July 20, 1999, Changchun has become one of the areas where the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong has been most severe,” Qian Rui, the organizer of the event, said in a speech.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual cultivation rooted in the value of truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance, was first made public by its founder Li Hongzhi in Changchun, his hometown, in 1992.

Then-leader of the CCP Jiang Zemin launched a campaign of persecution to eradicate the practice in July 1999, viewing the popularity of Falun Gong in China as a threat to the regime’s power.

Wang Yifei, a former Changchun resident and reporter, was detained and shocked by several high-voltage stun batons until she lost consciousness in 1999 after protesting in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

“To this day, I still can’t forget that suffering,” Wang Yifei said.

Wang Kefei, her sister, was detained in a labor camp where she was tortured to death when she was 34 years old.

“I want the whole world to know that this persecution is real, that the people who have lost their lives exist,” Wang Yifei said in a speech.

“And to this day, the persecution has not ended. Those who remain imprisoned today are waiting for people to reach out and help them.”

Wang Liansu, Wang Yifei’s elder brother, spent 12 years in prison and almost lost his life several times while being tortured. He escaped to the United States in 2015.

“Whenever I hear that Falun Gong practitioners have been abducted, I feel deeply distressed. I truly cannot imagine how those elderly practitioners in their 70s and 80s could possibly endure such inhumane torture. I am extremely concerned about their current situation,” Wang Liansu said.

During the protest, Joy He demanded the release of her aunt Chen Min, a 75-year-old practitioner in Shenyang, China.

Chen was arrested by the CCP in 2024 for telling people that Falun Dafa is good. Chen was later sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison and fined 20,000 RMB, according to He.

“Persecuting good people will not bring true stability to the country; it will only cause more suffering and harm more families,” she said.

Protesters wrote in an open letter to the San Francisco Chinese Consulate, requesting that it forward it to the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Changchun.

“History will remember every era, and it will also remember the choices each person makes at critical moments. Please do not harm innocent people simply because you are carrying out a temporary order,” the open letter wrote.

“Torture of Falun Dafa practitioners is not alleged; it is a documented truth,” said Scott Shields, a 2026 California gubernatorial candidate in his speech, citing reports from Freedom House and Amnesty International.

“Those in China who were your parents, uncles and friends that worked with America’s business and political leadership to help build China of today that you prosper from, did not approve of such, and hoped one day their kids would not act out such evil and would change the ways of persecution,” Shields said in his speech to the staff in the Chinese Consulate.

“It’s time to change!”