12 Things to Know About The New York Times’ “Investigation” of Shen Yun, Falun Gong
12 Things to Know About The New York Times’ “Investigation” of Shen Yun, Falun Gong
Published August 26, 2024,
Updated January 2, 2025.
Since August 2024, the New York Times has published a series of articles on the Shen Yun dance company, founded by people who practice Falun Gong, and on Falun Gong itself. The articles falsely portray Shen Yun as an abusive environment that treats performers as “expendable” while others benefit financially and Falun Gong practitioners as hoodwinked zealots. The paper’s portrayals are unrecognizable not only to current and former Shen Yun performers and most Falun Gong practitioners, but also to doctors, lawyers, and China specialists closely familiar with these communities.
To understand how such distortions came to appear in such a prominent American newspaper, the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) researched various aspects of the reporting. Drawing on interviews with over 100 current and former Shen Yun performers over the past year, email communications between the journalists and interview subjects, medical doctors who regularly treat Shen Yun performers, along with leaked Chinese government information, we have identified multiple dubious elements.
We discovered that the Times disregarded repeated and good-faith attempts by Shen Yun and others to provide information that ran counter to its preconceived narrative, used highly problematic sources and a small sample size to build a particular storyline, ignored a wide-range of experts, did not disclose critical information to readers, and continued a decades-long pattern of grossly distorting the beliefs of Falun Gong practitioners.
The findings raise serious concerns about why the Times would engage in reporting that breaches journalistic ethics, while obviously harming a religious minority that is persecuted in China. The extent to which the Times’ reporting achieves the goals of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is deeply disturbing.
Below, we detail 12 things readers should know about the Times’ coverage.
The Times’ articles are based on cherry-picked accounts from a small group of disgruntled people that are then used to cast wide-ranging accusations without evidence to support them. The articles are also riddled with inaccuracies
The articles about Shen Yun primarily rely on a small, unrepresentative sample of former performers and Falun Gong practitioners to make sweeping accusations of implicit wrongdoing. In its nearly two decades of operation, well over 1,000 individuals have performed or worked with Shen Yun. In an August 2024 article, the journalists claim to have spoken to 80 individuals, including 25 former Shen Yun performers. Yet the Times’ articles rely almost entirely on the accounts of seven former performers, while citing 13 in total, a minute proportion of that broader community. This is far from a representative or fairly presented sample, yet the claims made or implied about Shen Yun and Falun Gong in the article, based on this small number, are sweeping and fly in the face of hundreds of publicly available accounts from current and former artists across multiple platforms and websites. Specifically, over 650 current and former Shen Yun performers have signed a petition calling the Times’ articles “gross distortions and false narratives about our work, our faith, and our way of life.” Over 570 family members, mostly parents, of Shen Yun performers signed the same petition.
The Falun Dafa Information Center checked with more than a dozen former artists, who hold very positive perspectives on their experience in Shen Yun and were easily accessible—they say they were never contacted by the reporters. On the contrary, at least a dozen former artists who were asked to leave Shen Yun or departed on bad terms were all contacted by the reporters. With only one exception, each of the 13 testimonials that made it to print were negative, not because this is the reality of life at Shen Yun, but because that is what the paper was apparently seeking. These facts suggest the journalists were not engaged in an honest investigation of the conditions of Shen Yun dancers, but rather, they were pursuing negative accounts.
Similar patterns are evident in an article published in December about Shen Yun’s finances. The entirety of the piece appears aimed at falsely depicting Falun Gong-affiliated organizations as money-making operations for Mr. Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong’s founder, yet there is no evidence demonstrating this. The article relies on a smattering of anecdotes and independent financial transactions mostly unrelated to Shen Yun’s operations, which are then used to imply financial benefit, without solid evidence or proof. Nevertheless, the Times’ editors chose the inaccurate headline “Chinese Dance Troupe’s Success Enriches a Movement’s Leader” for an article placed on the print edition’s front page.
In fact, Mr. Li has dedicated his life to benefiting others and to sharing the tenets of a Buddhist-like spiritual practice with the general public. He does not receive any income from Falun Gong-affiliated companies, including Shen Yun, which is a nonprofit organization. All Falun Gong books and instructional videos are also available online for free in over 50 languages and all Falun Gong conferences are free of charge to attend. It is clear that financial gain has never been his motivation. Yet, readers of the Times’ account would have no understanding of this context.
The falsehoods and distortions in the Times’ articles are not small errors. As outlined in greater detail below, the paper’s reporters omitted critically important and relevant information. It is hard not to conclude this was a deliberate and premeditated effort of writing, editing, and publishing stories that paint a uniformly negative, inaccurate, and unjust portrait of Shen Yun and Falun Gong. It seems that at multiple points in the reporting process, Times staff made decisions to pursue this pre-constructed storyline.
The result is a sweeping story making wide-ranging allegations about an American company and persecuted minority based almost entirely on a handful of sources with clear conflicts of interest, ulterior motives, prior coordination, and even ties to a Beijing-backed YouTuber and a well-documented CCP foreign influence campaign. Moreover, this was done in the face of repeated warnings, contradictory information, and access to knowledge that would facilitate a more accurate, fair depiction.
There appears to have been a multi-layered breakdown in any internal review process at the Times meant to ensure the accuracy, fairness, and credibility of reporting—let alone ensuring that foreign influence operations by malign actors are not at play.
The New York Times failed to disclose interviewees’ obvious conflicts of interest, including ties to the Chinese government.
The integrity of the paper’s methods further come into question when the background of key interviewees is examined more closely. At least three of the six former Shen Yun performers photographed and quoted multiple times in the Times’ first article published in August 2024 have undisclosed ties to the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA). BDA is a Chinese state-funded organization and the only major global competitor to Shen Yun and its affiliated schools. According to BDA’s own Chinese-language website, the CCP is deeply embedded in the academy, with the institute’s leadership consisting almost entirely of CCP members (10 out of 11 individuals on the leadership team) and several school leaders being in charge of propaganda and the United Front Work Department.
Three of the Times’ six main interviewees have traveled to China to work with BDA, while one of the interviewees runs a Taiwan-based dance studio that collaborates with a BDA teacher. Publicly accessible Facebook posts of the studio mention that the performer “studied under teachers of the Classical Dance Department of Beijing Dance Academy,” has collaborated with a BDA teacher, and sent students to the academy. According to parents of dance students at the performer’s studio, in March 2024 students from families who practice Falun Gong were asked to leave the studio and given refunds. None of these conflicting interests were noted in the article about Shen Yun.
Furthermore, that same interviewee had, for more than a year after leaving Shen Yun, maintained positive communication with Fei Tian College and even sought to return to the company, only to adopt a diametrically opposite narrative after developing ties with BDA. [1] (See Appendix A for timeline and sample of these communications). This is the same person who in November lodged a legal complaint against Shen Yun claiming labor rights violations and even “human trafficking.” A lawyer specializing in challenging frivolous legal complaints said that adding such attention-grabbing accusations is typical of “lawfare” tactics where the legal complaint is as much about generating headlines as it is about making a legal argument.
The Times’ reporters were warned of these possible conflicts of interest. Many months before the articles were published, the Times’ reporters were also informed that Shen Yun possessed communications in which more than one of their interview subjects expressed wholly positive perspectives of Shen Yun after leaving the company that ran counter to the narratives they were now sharing with the paper.
The Times has a long history of distorted reporting on Falun Gong.
The Times has a 25-year documented history of exceedingly problematic coverage of Falun Gong. A study our organization published in March, analyzing 159 Times articles dating back to 1999, reveals consistent flaws in the paper’s reporting on Falun Gong and its persecution. The study found that 76 percent of the articles from 1999 to 2002 contained factual inaccuracies or negative portrayals of the spiritual practice, falsely reflecting CCP claims that Falun Gong had been “crushed” in China. And despite publicly available documentation of ongoing human rights abuses, including over 5,000 documented deaths, the Times has not reported on these issues since 2016.
In fact, one of the paper’s own former Beijing correspondents, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, testified to the China Tribunal in 2019 that editors at the New York Times stopped her from pursuing evidence of organ transplant abuses targeting Falun Gong and other prisoners of conscience when she came across significant leads. Her editors also voiced disparaging comments about Falun Gong (Appendix G).
Thus, even as Falun Gong practitioners continue to suffer horrific atrocities in China, the Times’ coverage of Falun Gong has become increasingly hostile, targeting organizations founded by Falun Gong adherents and perpetuating previous falsehoods. In practice, this reporting not only misinforms the American public, it also uncritically adopts aspects of the CCP’s narrative and aligns with the regime’s objectives to discredit Falun Gong and stifle criticism of its repressive policies.
In fact, FDIC conversations with scores of current performers, as well as email communications from former artists to the Times’ reporters, show that a primary reason why potential interviewees were hesitant to speak to the Times’ was not because of a fear of retribution from Falun Gong, as implied in the articles (despite Falun Gong’s long track record of nonviolence and teachings stating practice should always be voluntary). Rather, it was because of the paper’s long history of distorting and misrepresenting who Falun Gong practitioners are and what they believe. (Appendix C)
In timing and substance, the Times’ reporting aligns with a new global push by top Chinese officials to shut down Shen Yun and eliminate Falun Gong globally
Our research has shown that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) long-standing transnational repression targeting Falun Gong practitioners outside China has taken a dramatic turn over the past year. With roots at the highest echelons of the party—including Xi Jinping himself—the regime has launched a new campaign to discredit the Falun Gong community in the United States and sabotage Shen Yun. Based on multiple leaks from internal CCP sources, the regime’s stated goal is to turn American society and even the U.S. government against Falun Gong and Shen Yun, weakening them globally as sources of dissent and alternative visions for China’s future.
These leaks have also articulated a very specific set of tactics to be deployed—including supporting Beijing-backed YouTubers, activating agents within the Falun Gong community to make false claims, using lawfare to trigger U.S. government investigations, and getting news reports published by outlets without visible ties to the regime.
Indeed, thus far, the campaign has already manifested in physical attacks, fake bomb threats, groundless lawsuits, and a small number of instigators spreading misleading claims on social media and major news outlets. Dozens of incidents documented by the Falun Dafa Information Center in 2024 eerily match the plans articulated in advance by sources within the regime’s security apparatus, reinforcing the credibility of their warnings.
Whether wittingly or not, the Times’ reporting fits these patterns. Never in the past 25 years, as millions have been detained, tortured, or killed across China, has the Times dedicated this amount of time and resources to a Falun Gong-related story. Yet now, the paper is turning its “investigative” prowess against those victims, precisely when Chinese officials have stated their intent to trigger negative reporting by activating CCP agents and other subterfuge.
Moreover, the paper is devoting a bizarrely disproportionate amount of resources to these stories, assigning two reporters to the beat for over a year, publishing at least nine articles in the span of five months, granting them featured placement in the print edition, and translating them for their Chinese website. It is strange and disconcerting that the Times has never invested the kind of resources into documenting the CCP’s pervasive rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners as it has now turned towards trying to uncover so-called “dark secrets” among Falun Gong.
A CCP-backed YouTuber who has threatened violence against Shen Yun and who faces illegal weapons charges in the United States has close ties with the Times’ interviewees and has spoken publicly about collaborating with the Times’ journalists.
In early August, FDIC published a detailed report on the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s plans to intensify its disinformation campaign against Falun Gong and Shen Yun abroad. The leaked documents that we analyzed specifically speak of supporting a Chinese YouTuber with a history of denigrating Falun Gong and making threats of violence against Shen Yun. The man faces illegal weapons charges in the United States, and federal law enforcement has issued alerts about the risk he poses to Shen Yun’s training center in New York. This man has also made deranged rants in his videos declaring himself to be the “top predator,” while warning Shen Yun performers to “be afraid” of him, and that they should “walk up to me on your knees.” According to the leaked documents, the Ministry of Public Security is committed to providing “full support” to this individual, while another document speaks of getting “defamatory” content about Falun Gong published in mainstream foreign media.
Soon after the Times articles came out, on August 18, this YouTuber boasted on X that “I was the one who introduced people [former performers] to the New York Times, especially for the initial interviews.” At least three of the Times’ six core interviewees had previously appeared on his YouTube channel. Several of them were also simultaneously recruiting potential interviewees for both his channel and the Times’ reporters, according to communications from former Shen Yun performers who they contacted. This pattern continued with subsequent Times’ reporting.
At least two of the interviewees quoted and featured in photographs in the paper’s December 29 article about Shen Yun’s finances have ties to that YouTuber named in MPS documents. One of them is also among the former performers who after leaving Shen Yun established ties with Beijing Dance Academy (see point #3), an experience he spoke about publicly on that YouTuber’s channel. Yet, none of these party-state links were disclosed to readers.
These were not the only points of intersection. As early as January 2024, the U.S.-based YouTuber mentioned on his channel that he was in contact with the Times. In at least 14 subsequent posts on YouTube and X, he made references to the Times article prior to its publication, including claiming that because of forthcoming reporting Falun Gong and Shen Yun would be “screwed.” In two posts on X after the article’s publication, this YouTuber spoke of how he facilitated interviews for the Times and otherwise influenced its reporting (See Appendix B for collection of posts from this YouTuber).
In a post on August 4, the YouTuber outlined “three key arenas” to “dismantle” Shen Yun structurally and financially: “the legal system, influential media outlets like The New York Times, and the online Chinese-speaking community.” These stated goals align with the strategies outlined in leaked CCP documents: to silence and defame Falun Gong practitioners in the United States by triggering negative articles in major news outlets and potential law enforcement investigations.
Prior to the Times’ publication, we provided the journalists with information about the Ministry of Public Security’s plans, warning them that they might have fallen into the trap of the CCP’s media manipulation campaign. It seems these warnings went unheeded.
The articles misrepresent Falun Gong beliefs and the community of practitioners, displaying cultural and religious illiteracy and bias.
In an apparent display of anti-religious bias, the Times casts Falun Gong’s belief system as mockable. The Times sensationalizes Falun Gong beliefs that are common among many religious traditions, such as the idea that suffering is a consequence of sin or karma, that the universe has a benevolent Creator, and a concern with uplifting the soul toward spiritual salvation. The Times inability, or unwillingness, to contextualize Falun Gong’s teachings within theological and, in particular, Buddhist and Taoist traditions, demonstrates religious ignorance, intolerance, and explicit bias.
The sweeping image depicted—of a group of blind believers duped into donating their life savings—could not be further from the lived reality and experience of the vast majority of Falun Gong practitioners. As a faith, Falun Gong is less strict and controlling than almost any other religion. There are no clergy, there are no churches, there are no tithes or required donations, and there is no formal membership or conversion ceremony. Falun Gong is free and open to all. Anyone can read the spiritual teachings for free online and learn the exercises from online videos or at a practice site run by volunteers. Solicitation of donations is not allowed in the Falun Gong community. Mr. Li has explicitly stated in his teachings that Falun Gong practitioners should not offer gifts to his family members and that those holding regular jobs should not donate funds to Shen Yun.
Moreover, Falun Gong practitioners do not follow Mr. Li’s teachings out of simple blind belief. If that were the case, Falun Gong would never have survived one of the most violent and vicious instances of religious persecution in recent memory. Yet the Times seeks to portray Falun Gong as cultish and Shen Yun as some grand money-making scheme, ignoring lived reality and experts’ writings on the nature of Falun Gong. Like disciples of other faiths, Falun Gong adherents have had deeply personal spiritual and other life experiences that reaffirm their beliefs.
The community is also extremely diverse. Unlike the portrayal in the Times, many practitioners are very well-educated, with advanced degrees in the hard sciences from top universities. They have watched Shen Yun performances and been personally moved. They have seen audience members—of diverse religious backgrounds—expressing gushing appreciation for the show’s inspiring message of hope and spirituality. This motivates a spirit of volunteerism to support the endeavor by hosting performances or selling tickets. Falun Gong practitioners are not ignorant fanatics being deceived by a guru, as the Times’ mocking portrayal implies.
The Times also portrays standard cultural practices of some three billion people as bizarre. One article describes students greeting Mr. Li Hongzhi as “Shifu” (translated into English as “teacher” or “master”), “while clasping their hands and bowing.” What they fail to tell readers is that this is a ubiquitous greeting across Asian cultures, and not limited to spiritual settings. In martial arts dojos around the world, students greet their teachers or “masters” in similar fashion. Indeed, at the Fei Tian schools and Shen Yun, dancers will similarly bow to dance instructors or choreographers when they step into dance studios.
Journalists explicitly pursued negative stories and omitted lengthy communications from former Shen Yun performers that contradicted their dark narrative.
Email correspondence shared with FDIC indicates the skewed and negative narrative of the articles, despite evidence that would have countered it. Email records show that multiple people whom the Times contacted relayed positive experiences about their time with Shen Yun or otherwise shared information that contradicted what was published in the final article (Appendix C). Yet their comments were almost entirely omitted from the pieces.
Indeed, after the article was published, violinist Eugene Liu, one of the interviewees who was quoted in the article raising a concern about how much student artists are paid published a series of posts on X indicating his comment was taken out of context and that “a better comparison would be in the collegiate sphere, where student athletes (most of whom are on full scholarships) are not paid to play.” Liu, moreover, referred in his posts to his time at Shen Yun as “invaluable” and that “my time there was nothing but positive.” Liu further reflected:
“Because of the wholesome environment that is fostered, I have been able to avoid habits that have plagued many people my age, including internet and gaming addiction, as well as rampant substance abuse. … I never felt deprived of anything material, and crucially, the mission of Shen Yun fed me spiritually.”
Such comments never made it into the article. Liu noted in a later interview that his impression was that the two Times’ reporters were approaching Shen Yun with the thought that it was something “sinister” and that “There’s a lot of things that they would conveniently leave out.”
Moreover, several people contacted by the Times warned them that their interviewees may have been compromised. One former dancer contacted by the paper told the reporters that the sources they were relying on were untrustworthy and working in coordination with each other, or at least were influenced by each other’s recollections of their time at Shen Yun, likely leading to exaggerations. She urged the journalists to “do your homework to really understand their backgrounds,” and that “some have complicated backgrounds in China.”
“These people have known each other and been talking for many years, so even if a few of them might tell you the same story, I don’t know that proves much,” she told the journalists (Appendix C, email #1). Another comment by this person was included in the final article (the only positive testimony about Shen Yun), indicating that the journalists found her at least somewhat credible. Yet her warnings were disregarded.
The article falsely implied that Shen Yun artists and Falun Gong practitioners are discouraged from seeking medical care or are denied access to necessary treatments.
A major theme of the Times’ reporting is that Shen Yun performers do not receive medical care. But this is demonstrably false. One article details four instances of dancers and two cases of musicians performing through untreated injuries or sprains. In each case, it notes that the individuals did not seek or request medical care. A Shen Yun representative offered to arrange for the Times to interview several Shen Yun artists who had sought and received medical treatment, but the reporters did not pursue those offers (Appendix D).
Moreover, one of the former performers mentioned in the article explicitly told the Times that although she chose to seek only limited treatment for a knee injury, “it can’t represent Shen Yun’s attitude for injuries.” She further explained that “many Shen Yun dancers do in fact receive medical treatment… and this is the majority.” (Appendix C, Email #1) None of those comments were included in the Times report nor the fact that she ultimately recovered from the injury and went on to perform for several years after the incident.
FDIC spoke with over 100 Shen Yun performers over the last ten months to produce multiple reports about transnational repression targeting Shen Yun. According to our findings, while some Shen Yun dancers do suffer injuries in the course of training or performing, none of the artists we spoke to indicated the company discouraged them from seeking medical treatment. Rather, these artists said the company provides access to a very high standard of medical care, while respecting each performer’s personal decision as to what treatments they wish to seek.
“Like with any other professional athlete or performer, if you’re dealing with various aches and pains, sometimes you just need to push through,” explained Principal Dancer Piotr Huang in an interview. “But if it will cause a lasting injury or is too painful, of course, we don’t perform. We have a responsibility to our audience and only want to show our best, therefore we would never perform with a serious injury, and Shen Yun wouldn’t allow it anyway.”
Several doctors who practice medicine in towns near Shen Yun’s headquarters in New York say they regularly treat Shen Yun performers. According to Dr. Jingduan Yang, CEO of Northern Medical Center, he and his colleagues regularly conduct medical evaluations for Shen Yun performers and order 10-20 X-rays and 15-20 MRI scans related to Shen Yun dancers each year. Shen Yun administrators indicate there are medical records for multiple surgeries for ruptured Achilles tendons, ACL, and other injuries dating back years.
The Times’ revives this line of accusations in a December article, highlighting a heart-rending case of a Falun Gong practitioner working for Shen Yun who passed away from cancer. The paper omits reference to reports from Shen Yun representatives that this person was in fact repeatedly encouraged to seek medical attention and in fact, finally taken to the hospital by a Shen Yun staff member. That the individual refused prior medical care was her personal decision and should not be taken to represent Shen Yun policies or Falun Gong teachings. In fact, Falun Gong teachings do not prohibit nor discourage taking medicine, though many people experience health improvements after taking up the practice. Mr. Li has repeatedly told believers in publicly available teachings to seek medical treatment if needed.
The article erroneously characterizes as nefarious and oppressive practices that are in fact standard at many schools in the United States.
To further the narrative that Shen Yun’s environment is abusive or controlling, the Times describes several ostensibly oppressive policies that are, in fact, industry standard practices, or at least increasingly common approaches at schools in the United States.
The Shen Yun training facility in New York’s Hudson Valley is co-located with a fully registered boarding school, Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, where students earn a high school diploma and hone their artistic skills. It is also home to Fei Tian College, accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
The Times reports, in a disapproving tone, that the students cannot leave campus without permission—even though this is standard practice for boarding schools, and indeed, even regular public schools. Schools assume legal responsibility for the students in their care, including if they are injured when leaving the premises during school hours. What high school allows its students to just leave campus without permission?
With regard to the fact that the campus is “guarded,” as noted in the Times’ article, an estimated 61 to 65 percent of U.S. public schools employ armed security personnel, as do most private boarding schools and colleges, even in rural locations. Far from being hallmarks of a paranoid, isolated, and restrictive “compound,” these are reflections of investment in student safety and wellness. Such protections are all the more crucial for a community repeatedly subject to transnational repression from the CCP or threats of physical violence. (Appendix C, email #3)
The article also erroneously implies that families are restricted from visiting students. Many students attending Fei Tian Academy of the Arts frequently see their families, when their relatives live nearby or visit the campus. Those who see family only during vacations are not because of rules that restrict access, but rather because relatives live far away, often in other countries.
The paper similarly noted that younger artists are not permitted smartphones, and that Internet time is limited. This is indeed a policy at Fei Tian, as it is in many schools and homes across America. School limits on recreational screen time are increasingly commonplace. The Times itself recently published recommendations to ban smartphones in schools and enforce age limits for social media use. After more than a decade of disconcerting studies and escalating concerns from parents, California, Florida, New York, and other states are working to ban smartphones from the classroom. In this respect, the Fei Tian schools—which allow students access to flip or “dumb” phones, including for communication with their families, a practice being adopted by other schools—were ahead of their time. Yet the Times reports this as evidence of a “dark side.”
Even the generous financial aid arrangements made for students are presented as somehow nefarious: Student-performers are given full-ride scholarships to registered or accredited secondary, post-secondary, and post-graduate institutions, along with free room and board, a cash stipend for program expenses, and opportunities to travel the world. Such arrangements are common in ballet and other performing arts companies, although the package for Shen Yun’s student performers is more substantial than many. Yet, in the Times’ framing, these benefits are presented as tools of exploitation and emotional manipulation.
The Times article even depicts the requirement of weight control for dancers as abusive. But that is common among professional dancers, athletes, and models. It is not only for aesthetic reasons but also to reduce the risk of injuries, as extra weight can put additional stress on joints and bones. According to at least one former dancer who was in the same troupe as some of the Times’ interviewees, even when trying to lose weight, dancers were advised to eat enough to have sufficient energy and provided with information on proper nutrition.
The articles systematically use emotionally manipulative language and imagery.
The August articles employ emotionally manipulative language and imagery to shape readers’ perceptions. The reporters refer to Shen Yun’s training center as a “compound” a full seven times in their first piece alone and describe Shen Yun’s administrators as “lieutenants.” Shen Yun’s training center has no surrounding wall, which is the primary characteristic of a “compound.” Such word choices are not accidental; they are crafted to evoke a sense of fear and control, to conjure associations with groups like the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and to steer the reader towards a cultish impression of Shen Yun and Falun Gong.
The images accompanying the story lack any pretense of neutrality. Photos of former performers, Shen Yun posters, and Shen Yun’s training center are all cast in a gloomy, wintery light, with the performers in melancholy poses and facial expressions. These visual choices—which contrast with photos of these same individuals on their social media profiles—work in tandem with the text to dramatize the narrative, further reinforcing the negative portrayal. (Appendix E)
The subliminal messaging is intended to create an atmosphere of suspicion and unease around Shen Yun and Falun Gong. By employing such emotionally charged and suggestive language, the article subtly reinforces the idea that these groups are secretive, cultish, and potentially dangerous. At the same time, the article does not relay to readers that well-respected experts on Chinese religion who have written books on Falun Gong have concurred with the assessment that it is not a cult and that in fact “the cult label was a red herring” invented by the CCP to retroactively justify the persecution. (Appendix F)
This approach not only skews the reader’s perception, it also discredits the positive cultural and spiritual aspects of Shen Yun and Falun Gong by casting them in a shadow of fear and mistrust. Through these tactics, the article overtly employs the basic tools of a propaganda hit piece. It manipulates the audience, rather than attempting to present an objectively balanced account.
The articles whitewash the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong—including well-documented organ transplant abuses and transnational repression targeting Shen Yun.
In most of the articles, the reporters give only passing mention to the repression in China, while downplaying its size using vague terms like “many” in reference to the number of Falun Gong practitioners in detention. In fact, experts have repeatedly estimated that hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained by the regime, far more than “many” would convey. Even when depicting the CCP’s transnational campaign to sabotage Shen Yun, the paper grossly misrepresents the scale, citing one example of a diplomat applying pressure to stop a show. A January report by the FDIC documented 130 incidents of censorship attempts and physical attacks in over 38 countries by the regime and its proxies against Shen Yun.
The reporters also quote a lone expert who denies the existence of a systematic program of organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners. Yet this individual is not among the many researchers, journalists, lawyers, and doctors who have testified in Congress, authored NGO reports, or written peer-reviewed articles in medical journals about organ transplant abuses in China. These experts all found evidence indicating Falun Gong practitioners have been systematically killed for their organs. Such evidence has also been found credible by a 2019 China Tribunal panel of specialists, nine United Nations Special Rapporteurs, the U.S. Congress, and the European Parliament. Why would the Times not cite any of these experts, organizations, governmental bodies, or their easily available, published work, and instead choose one individual who would deny it?
The Times is missing the real story and the CCP is benefiting.
Whether knowingly or not, this reporting reeks of CCP influence and echoes Chinese state media’s routine talking points which demonize Falun Gong, and incite hatred, social ostracism, and violence. It is horrifying to see a leading U.S. paper echo that framing and bring anti-Falun Gong discrimination to American shores.
The Times seems to be trying to take what should be celebrated—an attitude of volunteerism and a creative, world-class dance troupe bringing a message of faith and hope to millions—and to present it as some kind of exploitative, money-making scheme. It is doing so without any apparent regard for the consequences of its actions.
Its irresponsible reporting has already harmed Falun Gong practitioners, including those in China where the regime has translated and disseminated the paper’s past articles to fuel hatred and violence. Outside China, such reporting inevitably turbo-charges Chinese diplomatic efforts to pressure theaters not to book shows, while putting performers in physical danger.
But the impact of the Times’ problematic distortions is more far-reaching. They harm would-be audience members in the United States and around the world who would benefit from Shen Yun’s artistry, beauty, and optimistic messages, as well as readers who might otherwise appreciate how a spiritual and meditative practice like Falun Gong could improve their lives.
Meanwhile, CCP proxies are making use of the articles when making violent threats and sending fake emails to elected officials who have supported Shen Yun in the past. An Aug. 19 message to the Shen Yun website demanded that Shen Yun’s criticism of the Times’ reports (such as Shen Yun’s official response statement) be immediately removed. If they are not removed within a month, the message said, then:
“Shen Yun Performing Arts and Fei Tian school employees, and family members very likely will have some inexplicable car accidents, their houses will unexplainably catch fire and burn, and also may be attacked by New York gangsters. We hope you can be responsible to them and their families.”
This is one of at least 20 threats of bomb detonations, mass shootings, or sexual violence that have been sent targeting Shen Yun performers or venues in 2024. Thankfully, none of the threats have resulted in actual violence but the psychological impact and the attempt to pressure theaters to cancel performances is real.
In two other incidents, people falsely impersonating former Shen Yun performers sent emails to parliamentarians in Canada and Sweden trying to discourage them from supporting Shen Yun. The emails used almost identical language, linked to the New York Times’ articles, and made claims of abuse and trauma. Suspicious of the messages, the targets shared them with local Falun Gong practitioners who confirmed with Shen Yun that no such former performers or students by those names existed.
The CCP could not have imagined a better ally than the Times in its latest campaign to eliminate Falun Gong globally.
About the Falun Dafa Information Center
The Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) is a non-profit located in New York, which documents the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China and abroad, while advocating on behalf of victims. Founded in the fall of 1999, the center’s research and its staff have been referenced in major news outlets, testified before Congress, and been cited in reports by human rights groups, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, among others. For more information on our mission, history, and staff, see the About Us page.
Endnotes
[1] Prior to associating with BDA, this interviewee sent several messages to a former professor at Fei Tian College—one requesting to come back to Shen Yun and a year later, an email expressing gratitude for her time with Shen Yun and praising the experience. She also invited the professor to her wedding in 2021. (See Appendix A)
Appendices
The following appendices are provided to share evidence collected by the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) that informed its analysis and conclusions regarding the New York Times recent coverage of Falun Gong and Shen Yun. The appendices match references made to them in the text of the report.
