Optimistic About U.S. Congress and Government Efforts to End CCP’s Persecution of Falun Gong — Remarks by Piero Tozzi, Chief

On July 17, 2025, marking the 26th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong, 1,500 Falun Gong practitioners and supporters from the eastern United States gathered on the National Mall near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., calling to “Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong.” More than a dozen U.S. officials, human rights leaders, and advocates delivered speeches in support of Falun Gong.

Ahead of the rally, officials from the U.S. State Department and over ten bipartisan members of Congress issued statements condemning the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution and demanding its immediate end.

Piero Tozzi, Chief of Staff to Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), said at the rally:

“I am optimistic about Congress and this administration working together to help end this crime against humanity—the persecution of Falun Gong.”

He noted that 26 years ago, Jiang Zemin initiated the full-scale persecution of Falun Gong. “Today, under the leadership of another General Secretary, Xi Jinping, this brutal persecution continues.” Many Americans are only now realizing that “China under Xi Jinping poses a threat to world peace and to the Chinese people suffering under communist rule,” because “the regime’s nature has remained the same: to maintain the Chinese Communist Party’s political power and suppress any alternative civil society, religious, or ideological options.”

He praised the U.S. State Department for publicly calling on the CCP to stop persecuting Falun Gong. “Just yesterday, the State Department issued a very clear statement urging the Chinese Communist Party to end the persecution of Falun Gong.”

He also revealed that Congressman Smith will once again take action to urge the State Department to collect information on those involved in forced organ harvesting to hold them accountable.