Cary Dunst

NTD Plus

News

News with integrity, from the U.S. and around the world. Focused reports and analyses that shed light on major issues the world deserves to know. NTD Evening News airs daily at 6 p.m. ET.

NTD Evening News

Iranian Regime ‘Withers on the Vine’ From US Efforts, Says Retired Air Force Commander

David Lam is a national correspondent based in California and a part-time anchor for "NTD Tonight." Before joining NTD he was a financial analyst.

David Lam

Community Reactions to New Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao

Jason Perry is an Army veteran and NTD's National Security Correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Jason primarily covers border security, national defense, foreign wars, and veterans' issues.

Jason Perry

25 Members, Associates of Mexican Mafia Arrested: Justice Department

Arian Pasdar is an international correspondent for NTD News based in South America. His reporting focuses on immigration and key events in Latin America.

Arian Pasdar

US Sending Second Aircraft Carrier to Join Blockade on Iran

Israel Reports Finding a Hezbollah Tunnel Under a Clothing Store

Christina Corona is a California-based reporter for NTD News. She primarily covers California news, politics, and entertainment.  

Christina Corona

California Residents React to Governor Debate

US Navy Boards Ship in Indian Ocean Transporting Iranian Oil to China

Dave Martin is NTD's Senior Sports Reporter and sports analyst. He also hosts "Data Hub" segments during NTD's special election coverage, "The Nation Decides."

Dave Martin

Jalen Williams Out Games 3 and 4 for Thunder After Hamstring Injury

Low Taxes on Gas Key to Why US Drivers Pay Less Than Half What Europeans, Asians Pay: Analyst

Jackson Richman is a Washington correspondent for The Epoch Times. In addition to Washington politics, he covers the intersection of politics and sports/sports and culture. He previously was a writer at Mediaite and Washington correspondent at Jewish News Syndicate. His writing has also appeared in The Washington Examiner. He is an alum of George Washington University.

Jackson Richman

Chris Bob is a reporter for NTD and a host of "Profiles of Service." He is also a small business owner. Chris graduated from Union College with a concentration in politics and religion in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Chris Bob

US News

US Warns of ‘Industrial-Scale’ Efforts by China to Extract AI Technology

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 24)

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 23)

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 22)

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 21)

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 20)

Don Ma is an anchor and senior business correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Don is the anchor and producer of NTD's "Business Matters," which airs weekdays at 4:30 pm ET.

Don Ma

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 19)

Arleen Richards is NTD's legal correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City, where she covers all major legal stories. Arleen holds a Doctor of Law (J.D.).


Arleen Richards

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 18)

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 17)

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 16)

NTD Evening News Full Broadcast (April 15)

Naveen Athrappully is a news reporter covering business and world events at The Epoch Times.


Naveen Athrappully

Science &amp; Tech

FBI Issues Public Alert on Americans Using Foreign Apps

Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.

Juliet Song

China News

China Hits Back at US Over Investigation That Could Trigger Higher Tariffs

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

Gunman Kills 8 Children, Including 7 of His Own, in Louisiana Mass Shooting

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

Fast, compelling, first-hand news from China. China in Focus airs Monday–Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

China in Focus

China Sends Warships to Pacific Drill as Tensions With Japan Rise

Flora Hua is a reporter based at NTD's global headquarters in New York City, where she covers China news, U.S.-China relations, and human rights issues. Flora primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus."  

Flora Hua

Trump: Seized Iranian Ship May Have ‘A Gift From China’

FBI Warns Americans About Safety Risks When Traveling to China

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

We present news that is truthful and based on facts, outside of the political fog. Instead of focusing on the negative things happening around us, our mission is to give our viewers a good morning with empathetic and uplifting stories. Our aim is to provide an antidote to negativity by shining a light on the best side of people. We speak to inspiring people who positively impact communities, pursue topics that represent our common human values, and will never miss an opportunity to bring you heartwarming stories.

NTD Good Morning

Army Chief of Staff Steps Down

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

US Issues Shelter-In-Place Order for Americans in Bahrain

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Secret Service Says Gunfire Reported Near White House Overnight

US Fighter Jets Intercept Civilian Aircraft Flying Near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Catherine Yang is a reporter for The Epoch Times based in New York.

Catherine Yang

NEW YORK CITY—Dozens of Falun Gong practitioners gathered at the United Nations Plaza on Sept. 23, to urge world leaders attending the General Assembly to stand against the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of the faith group.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/why-is-the-ccp-persecuting-the-peaceful-falun-gong-spiritual-practice-5902637">discipline</a> based on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. It was introduced to the public in China in the early 1990s, with 70 million to 100 million people practicing in China by the end of the decade, according to official estimates.

In 1999, then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners using the weight of the entire state apparatus. He directed state agencies and personnel to physically destroy the believers, ruin them financially, and destroy their reputations, in the belief that the regime would crush the practice within six months. Since then, untold numbers of practitioners have suffered arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and even death by forced organ harvesting.

At the demonstration at the United Nations Plaza, participants said the CCP's persecution of faith and infringement on freedom of belief go beyond Falun Gong in China.

"We're here today to tell the world that Falun Dafa is good; that truth, compassion, and tolerance are good," said Wang Zhiyuan, a Falun Gong practitioner in New York. "We want to take the opportunity to address world leaders, and the world's people, to call for the end of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong.

"The CCP's persecution of Falun Gong in China and overseas has already gone on for more than 26 years, and it's an evil never before seen in history," Wang said, referring to the regime's practice of live organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience.

"We're calling on the world to resist and stop this persecution of not only Falun Gong, but the whole world. Recognize the CCP's evil nature. It's the world's biggest violator of human rights, it's a terrorist organization."

Sam Brownback, former Kansas senator and ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said the CCP won't win its war on religion.

"They are opposed to all religions, they're at war with religion, and the religion they fear the most is Falun Gong ... because it is so natural to China," he said. "It's the roots of what the Chinese ancient civilization is about.

"China's at war with faith. It is a war they will not win," Brownback said.

He pointed to the CCP's persecution of Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, and Falun Gong within its borders, as well as it's exportation of religious persecution to states within its orbit by supporting the junta in Burma to bomb Christian <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/report-from-battlefront-in-burma-ccp-supporting-tyranny-and-slaughter-of-civilians-5909347" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">churches</a> and backing the Nicaraguan government's effort to kick out Catholic priests and evangelical leaders.

"This is a global war of China against faith, and the global faith community should come and stand against it. And at the end of the day, this is a battle between atheism and God, and who wins this will control the destiny of the world," Brownback said.
<h2>CCP Losing Members</h2>
Wang is also chair of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, an online <a href="http://global.tuidang.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">platform</a> and network of <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/hong-konger-reveals-how-she-went-from-ccp-loyalist-to-helping-others-quit-the-party-5890615">volunteers</a> who have helped people withdraw from the CCP and its affiliate organizations.

After The Epoch Times published "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" in 2004, it sparked a global grassroots movement of Chinese people quitting the CCP and its affiliate organizations—groups where membership is often mandatory for Chinese citizens through work or study. Thousands, then tens of thousands of people began to withdraw from the CCP daily, including high-level officials.

As of Sept. 23, more than 452 million people have quit.

Wang said he is seeing not only an acceleration in the number of people quitting the CCP, but also a change in attitude. In the early days, people often used pseudonyms to make a public statement of withdrawal, but many are now using their real names and speaking out publicly.

At an event in New York City in April, 29 Chinese people quit the CCP on the spot, Wang said. At a rally in August celebrating a milestone in the number of people who've quit the CCP, 25 Chinese people announced in front of the crowd that they were doing the same.
<h2>Practitioners Say CCP Deceives Public</h2>
Lucy Sun, 10, said she and her family had come to the United Nations last September as well, hoping to raise awareness for her grandmother, who was detained in China for practicing Falun Gong.

"I'm here because I want to tell the world Falun Dafa is good, and that we want to stop the persecution," she said.

In communist China, only state-controlled versions of religions are considered legal, and the regime often brands non-state religious practice as "cults" or "heresy." Lucy's grandmother had been wrongfully detained more than once because of her belief in Falun Gong.

Li Dianqin said she has joined peaceful demonstrations in front of the United Nations General Assembly every year since moving to the United States in 2016, in hopes of giving a voice to Falun Gong and raising awareness of the persecutions. This advocacy means she has had to cut off all contact with her daughter, Li said, or risk endangering her daughter if she draws the regime's ire.

"But she told me, 'Mom, Falun Gong saved your life. You have a responsibility to tell the truth about Falun Gong,'" Li said. "She supports my advocacy."

The CCP is known to target critics of the regime wherever they may be in what human rights organizations and the U.S. government labels "transnational repression." If the targeted dissidents have family or close contacts in China, they can sometimes become <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/the-harrowing-realities-of-uyghur-life-in-china-rushan-abbas-5889643">hostages</a> in the regime's efforts to silence dissent.

Li said she learned about Falun Gong from her daughter in 1995. She was extremely ill at the time, with multiple organs affected by disease. Like many other early practitioners of Falun Gong in China, Li experienced tremendous health benefits from the practice.

Li says she wants people to understand what Falun Gong is and the unjust nature of the persecution, and she believes this will inspire people to stand on the right side of history.

"If good people don't step forward, evil will have free rein," she said.

Sunny Guo said she was shocked when she began to hear the same slanderous terms used by CCP-run media in China coming from the mouths of teenagers at a shopping center in New York.

Guo said she first learned about Falun Gong when the persecution began and the name of the practice was plastered all over the news. It was a decade later before she would meet someone who gave her the primary text of Falun Gong. After she read the book, she understood Falun Gong to be a practice that taught one how to be a better person, and took up the practice herself.

Until this year, Guo said she had never heard Americans parroting CCP propaganda about Falun Gong. But now young people are copying what they see on social media, and certain media outlets have lifted the same narrative and phrases that Chinese state-run media have been using for decades, she said.

"Falun Gong is a very, very peaceful spiritual practice, and the principles of Falun Gong are truthfulness, compassion, forbearance," she said.

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/falun-gong/falun-gong-practitioners-call-on-un-world-leaders-to-denounce-ccps-persecution-of-faith-5919207">The Epoch Times</a></em>

Latest

Persecution in China

Paywall Related

Videos

04_Top Stories

New York

Latest Clips

No Wall

Management

03_Featured

Falun Gong

State News

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.

Falun Gong Practitioners Call on UN, World Leaders, to Denounce CCP’s Persecution of Faith

Full Episodes