Knife-wielding Assailants Attack Falun Gong Information Booths in Hong Kong

In what appears to be a coordinated attack across several locations, assailants wielding knives and spray paint attacked Falun Gong information displays on the streets of Hong Kong.

Photos and video footage show the masked perpetrators tearing down banners, slashing them with knives, and knocking down display boards. At one of the locations, a woman volunteer was assaulted, and violently thrown to the ground during the attack.

The assaults are believed to be instigated by pro-CCP groups. They fled the scene and remain at large.

“These violent acts against a religious minority that unfolded in broad daylight on Hong Kong’s streets are a clear indication that basic freedoms, and even the rule of law, are indeed in jeopardy in Hong Kong,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesman, Mr. Erping Zhang. “We call on the Hong Kong police to bring these perpetrators to justice, and ensure the physical safety of peaceful Hong Kong citizens,” Zhang says. “The international community must also hold Hong Kong accountable for these types of hate crimes, which are clearly prompted by the Chinese Communist Party.”

Last Holdout against Draconian Censorship

For two decades, Falun Gong volunteers have organized information booths on the streets of Hong Kong featuring credible reports on the nature of Falun Gong and the human rights abuses they face in China. The booths are primarily for tourists from Mainland China, where Falun Gong is demonized in the state-run media, and all third-party information is censored.

“For many Mainland Chinese, these booths are their first opportunity to read uncensored information about Falun Gong, such as the Pulitzer prize-winning articles from the Wall Street Journal that exposed how Chinese officials regularly torture Falun Gong practitioners to death, or the fact that Falun Gong is freely practiced around the world, and only persecuted in China,” says Zhang. “These basic truths are hidden from them inside Mainland China, and so they remain blinded to the true story of what the CCP is doing to Falun Gong.”

Multiple Assaults in Broad Daylight

Just after 11 A.M. on April 2, four knife-wielding thugs ran towards a Falun Gong information booth on Argyle Street, Mong Kok. They tore up banners and display boards and threw them to the ground. One of the men in the group cut up the display boards and banners with a knife while another man vandalized the contents of the board with spray paint. They fled afterward. On the same day, two other men and a woman also set up a separate information booth next to the damaged site that displayed CCP propaganda vilifying Falun Gong.

Just past 11:30 A.M., the same assailants attacked a Falun Gong information on Soy Street in Mong Kok. They ripped up flags, slashed display boards with their knives, and sprayed black paint on the banners.

At approximately 12:08 P.M., the same group attacked a site in Hung Hom train station and repeated the process. Witnesses recorded their actions on their phones.

Witnesses also say that one of the perpetrators, a man wearing sunglasses, was videotaping the entire process while his companions damaged the sites.

The next day, April 3, three more booths in the Mong Kok district and Wong Tai Sin district were sabotaged by another group of six perpetrators between 11 A.M., and 1 P.M. Two more sites in Mong Kok were also attacked on April 3. 

Prior Assaults by the Chinese Communist Party

The Hong Kong Youth Care Association, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affiliated organization that repeatedly harassed and attacked Falun Gong volunteers for eight years on Hong Kong’s streets, was formally disbanded at the end of 2020. However, since early March 2021, displays with information demonizing Falun Gong have popped up on several busy streets around Hong Kong including Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay, and Wan Chai.

These displays parrot CCP propaganda and have been unattended.

On March 25, 2021, a woman who set up displays slandering Falun Gong admitted to acting under orders given by the CCP in Shenzhen. She also revealed she had been told to take video recordings [of Falun Gong-related activities] and send them back to China every day.