Falun Gong protests - The CCPs Genocide
- Vasco Rego
- Jul 27
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 21
Written by: Vasco Ventura Rego
On Sunday the 20th of July London’s Chinatown was the stage to a large protest and march from the Falun Gong Chinese spiritual movement against the CCPs persecution of religious and spiritual movements in China. It's nothing recent, it’s been ongoing for 26 years actually and has taken the lives of men, women and children all over China. It rarely makes headlines, overshadowed by the other crises and tragedies of the world, even though I feel that it’s more gruesome and brutal than many others. I spoke with Sanny, a volunteer at the protest, to learn more about the situation and what is being done about it internationally.
The protests in London this weekend were peaceful, featuring a marching band, Falun Gong symbols such as the swastika and some posters with anti CCP messages such as “China ≠ CCP” and “celebrating 446 million (people) quitting (the) CCP”. They circled Chinatown a couple of times and distributed pamphlets to raise awareness concerning the situation in China. I ran into the protest out of sheer luck and this is where I met Sanny, a volunteer at the protest coordinating the people handing out leaflets and handing some out too.
“They take our members and take them to concentration camps” said Sanny when I asked her what the CCP was doing to the persecuted groups. When I asked her what happens in these camps Sanny said “torture, slave labour and selling (forcefully harvested) organs”. The issue of forceful harvesting in China is very real, “They take our blood and tissue and sell it” said Sanny about these practices in the camp. in 2019 sir Geoffrey Nice, who had been the prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for Yugoslavia said he was “certain that Falun Gong (is used) as a source - probably a principal source - of organs for forced organ harvesting” (Bowcott, 2019)
The prosecution isn't unique to Falun Gong but extends to almost all religious and ethnic groups in China, when we asked Sanny who suffers from this prosecution she said “Falun Gong, Christians, Uyghurs, Tibetans and other ethnicities”. This information is backed by the UNHRC, with UNHRC experts saying “Forced organ harvesting in China appears to be targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities…” (The list of experts can be accessed via the link in the sources). Other sources like the Guardian and the Telegraph as well as activist groups state that the Chinese also carry out involuntary blood tests and X-rays.
The UN defines genocide as “… act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”1. The UN then names a series of actions which count as genocide (check the sources for access to this list) and China has been accused of all them for multiple groups. The CCP has been carrying out the mass imprisonment of these groups in camps, and brutal and inhumane medical practices as well as tens of thousands of executions. I personally enjoy drawing parallels between history and current events, and there are many comparisons that can be drawn. “History repeats itself” we tend to say and sadly it seems to be doing so here, as the CCP appears to have taken on the model of mass killing of specific ethnicities and minorities similar to the holocaust, a horrendous genocide that ravaged Europe during the Second World War.
So what is being done? Firstly many countries are trying to shut down the gruesome international market for these organs by prohibiting their citizens from travelling to China for transplant procedures. On this list so far we have Israel, Italy and Spain. Furthermore the EU has condemned China’s actions against the Uyghurs and in 2024 passed a resolution urging its member states to end extradition treaties with China and recognises the persecution of Falun Gong since 1999. The UN has stated that it is alarmed by these claims, and has experts looking into the situation
The efficiency of these measures is dubious, as according to the telegraph China would be tripling the facilities used to forcefully harvest minority organs, meaning this brutal practice is not only continuing but also growing. This statement comes after the opening of six new medical centres in Xinjiang, an area with low organ donation rates. Xinjiang is an area with almost ten million Uyghurs, one of the oppressed groups of whom nearly half a million are incarcerated (Mendelson, 2025). The Chinese reject any accusations of genocide and claims of forced organ harvesting saying all practices were stopped in 2014, however to this day evidence continues to flow to the press and UN claiming otherwise. Testimonials, disappearances and discrepancies in CCP numbers show that these heinous crimes go on today.
I truly hope, although it seems unlikely, that the CCP stops its actions. More realistically though I hope to, in the near future, see more countries take action such as joining the previously mentioned countries in banning their citizens from travelling to China for organ transplants, condemning China’s actions or following the EU resolution and ending their extradition treaties with China. Let’s hope that actions are taken by the international community to put an end to this large scale and brutal genocide.
According to the convention of the prevention and punishment of the Crime of genocide.
Sources:
Definition of Genocide:
United Nations. (n.d.). Definitions of Genocide and related Crimes | United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition
Bowcott, O. (2019, June 17). China is harvesting organs from detainees, tribunal concludes. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/china-is-harvesting-organs-from-detainees-uk-tribunal-concludes
Texts adopted - The ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China, notably the case of Mr Ding Yuande - Thursday, 18 January 2024. (n.d.). © European Union, 2024 - Source: European Parliament. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2024-0037_EN.html
Lee, L. (2024, October 11). EU condemns China for human rights violations against Uyghurs. Voice of America. https://www.voanews.com/a/eu-condemns-china-for-human-rights-violations-against-uyghurs-/7819503.html
Mendelson, A. (2025, July 3). China ‘to triple number of Uyghur organ-harvesting centres.’ The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/07/03/china-triples-forced-organ-harvesting-hubs-target-uyghurs/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first
Sanny, (2025, July 20). Lisle street, Chinatown, London. Personal interview
For list of UNHCR experts consult:
Unknown (2021, 14 June) China: UN human rights experts alarmed by ‘organ harvesting’ allegations. UNHCR
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