FBI Arrests CCP Agents Targeting Falun Gong, Chinese Dissidents

Indictments say agents were instructed to get anti-Falun Gong articles published in U.S. newspapers, gather personal information, and pay protesters to target Falun Gong events; also details army of China-based agents attacking Falun Gong online

New York—The Falun Dafa Information Center commends the FBI and DOJ for taking strong and necessary action regarding transnational repression targeting Falun Gong practitioners and other Chinese communities on U.S. soil.

On April 17, 2023, two U.S. citizens were arrested by the FBI for operating as foreign government agents under the Chinese Communist Party since at least 2015 and committing obstruction of justice.

Agents “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan, most recently operated an undeclared police station in New York City on behalf of the Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau. The location was allegedly set up in February 2022 to carry out transnational repression against Falun Gong practitioners and other dissident communities around the world.

According to the indictment, during Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington D.C. in 2015, Lu also organized and paid counter-protesters to surround and drown out the voices of Falun Gong practitioners who were peacefully demonstrating. For Lu’s work on the protests, he received a plaque from the then-deputy director of the MPS, listed as “MPS Official-2” in the indictment. MPS Official-2 is suspected to be closely involved with the 610 Office, an extralegal CCP agency charged with leading the anti-Falun Gong campaign.

“It’s significant and encouraging to see such serious legal action being taken against Chinese officials engaging in transnational repression on U.S. soil, including against Falun Gong practitioners,” says Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center. “The actions these individuals are charged with are just the tip of the iceberg. For the past 23 years, Falun Gong practitioners in the United States have been targeted with death threats, physical assaults, home break-ins, online harassment, interference on university campuses, obstruction to business and livelihood, as well as intimidation of relatives in China, all at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The FBI indictment further recorded Lu’s involvement with the Ministry of Public Security’s agenda of transnational repression, specifically targeting Falun Gong practitioners and communities in New York City and Washington, D.C. under orders from “the former Director of the MPS ‘610’ directorate which handled Falun Gong matters (“MPS Official-3”).” Chinese authorities ordered Lu, Chen, and a third unnamed conspirator to locate Chinese nationals in the U.S. wanted by the MPS. Lu was also directed to “publish materials in newspapers against the Falun Gong” community, while Chen worked with the Chinese government to monitor Falun Gong practitioners. The MPS Official-3 behind them is likely Fu Zhenghua or Huang Ming, who were the directors of the 610 Office between the start of Lu’s activities in 2015 and restructuring of the extralegal agency in 2018.

The indictment against the pair explains that: “According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom, ‘the [Chinese Communist Party] maintains an extralegal, party-run security apparatus to eliminate the Falun Gong movement,’ using methods ranging from harassment to imprisonment. According to a report by the Safeguard Defenders, Falun Gong practitioners outside of the PRC are also the subjects of intimidation by the PRC government and its allied organizations.”

“The CCP’s transnational repression against Falun Gong and other victims of persecution is a long-term problem. We look forward to seeing even more actions by the US government against those who have attacked or spied on Falun Gong practitioners,” says Browde. “The falsehoods and intimidation that these CCP agents spread has a real-world impact on Americans, suppressing basic rights, inciting unfounded hatred among the Chinese diaspora and broader society, and propelling forward the CCP’s goal of international silence about one of the worst campaigns of religious persecution in the world today.”

“This indictment, along with the same-day indictment of 40 officials in China involved in the CCP’s propaganda campaign online, sends a clear message to current MPS authorities, Chinese officials, and undeclared foreign agents of the CCP in the United States: if you try to impose your thuggish tyranny in the U.S., you will be arrested, and justice will be served,” says Browde.

For more information on transnational repression of Falun Gong practitioners in the United States and other countries, visit faluninfo.net/transnational-repression/. To interview Mr. Browde, victims of transnational repression, or to submit personal accounts of transnational repression to the Falun Dafa Information Center, email us at contact@faluninfo.net.