LAUNCHING A KNOCKOUT PUNCH:
An Unprecedented CCP Campaign to Sabotage Shen Yun, Eliminate Falun Gong Globally
An Unprecedented CCP Campaign to Sabotage Shen Yun, Eliminate Falun Gong Globally
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.
Coming from the top: With roots at the highest echelons of the party, the regime has launched a new campaign to discredit the Falun Gong community in the United States and sabotage the American Chinese classical dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts, which was founded by Falun Gong practitioners.
Coming from the top:
With roots at the highest echelons of the party, the regime has launched a new campaign to discredit the Falun Gong community in the United States and sabotage the American Chinese classical dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts, which was founded by Falun Gong practitioners.
The regime’s endgame: The CCP’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.
The regime’s endgame:
The CCP’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.
Key tactics: Thus far, the campaign has 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, especially the New York Times. They have also sought to prompt investigations of Shen Yun by U.S. government agencies.
Key tactics:
Thus far, the campaign has 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, especially the New York Times. They have also sought to prompt investigations of Shen Yun by U.S. government agencies.
New playbook: This coordinated campaign eerily matches plans that sources within the regime’s security apparatus have leaked in advance, reinforcing the credibility of their warnings.
New playbook:
This coordinated campaign eerily matches plans that sources within the regime’s security apparatus have leaked in advance, reinforcing the credibility of their warnings.
What’s at stake: Beyond the severe consequences for Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun, if successful, this campaign would offer Beijing a blueprint for how to destroy any company, organization, or group of people in the United States at will, therefore representing a significant threat to American institutions more broadly.
What’s at stake:
Beyond the severe consequences for Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun, if successful, this campaign would offer Beijing a blueprint for how to destroy any company, organization, or group of people in the United States at will, therefore representing a significant threat to American institutions more broadly.
The Falun Dafa Information Center has been tracking this unprecedented campaign since late 2023, after noticing a dramatic escalation of online disinformation and offline threats targeting Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun. On this page, we outline responses to key questions based on our research and point readers to more detailed reports and information, including material from internal party sources and an analysis of inaccuracies and bias in the New York Times’ recent “investigation” of Shen Yun and Falun Gong.
We realize it may be difficult for some readers to believe that the CCP could successfully engage in a manipulation campaign that weaponizes mainstream American media and takes advantage of the U.S. judicial system. But being on the frontlines of this attack, this dynamic is precisely what we are seeing happen, as the portrayals of our community in the media have become so distorted. The depictions veer far from the reality of who Falun Gong practitioners are—a diverse, global community of kind, hardworking people striving for spiritual perfection and trying to use nonviolent and creative methods to help people around the world see through the CCP’s lies and to save relatives, friends, and fellow believers in China from the regime’s brutal religious persecution. We hope you can keep an open mind as you read further.
Key Questions and Answers
Who is behind the campaign?
The top of the CCP’s security apparatus. Internal sources indicate that the directives for this campaign are coming from the top echelons of the party, with Xi Jinping himself calling in 2022 for escalated attacks on Falun Gong overseas.
In his remarks, Xi reportedly complained that efforts to date to silence Falun Gong globally had not been “creative enough.” He then gave directives to employ two tactics—lawfare (strategic filing of typically baseless lawsuits to burden targets and smear their reputation) and disinformation. Xi is said to have specifically urged the use of social media accounts and mainstream media with no traceable ties to the CCP.
At the implementation level, Xi assigned leadership of the campaign to the party’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC), which oversees the security apparatus. Indeed, other internal sources have relayed that the effort is a joint venture between China’s Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Public Security—the state entities operating under the PLAC—and is allegedly spearheaded by Chinese Minister of State Security Chen Yixin.
In early August, the Falun Dafa Information Center published a report on the anticipated and emerging tactics drawing on internal MPS sources. The sources cited several strategies for securing the regime’s victory over Shen Yun and Falun Gong, including: supporting social media influencers (with two listed by name), triggering mainstream media reports, prompting U.S. government investigations, mobilizing secret agents within the Falun Gong community, and using these infiltrators to divide, conquer, and spy on Falun Gong practitioners.
The following quote from the detailed notes shared based on internal MPS meetings held in June 2024 cites several of these tactics and articulates the regime’s ultimate goal:
“Mobilize concealed agents to create and escalate the internal conflicts of Falun Gong, to expand nonstop the fighting strength, depth, and reach of [social media influencers targeting Falun Gong and Shen Yun]… they must attract the continuous attention of the entire United States society, and force the U.S. government to strike on all fronts, eliminating the force of Falun Gong.” [emphasis added]
“Mobilize concealed agents to create and escalate the internal conflicts of Falun Gong, to expand nonstop the fighting strength, depth, and reach of [social media influencers targeting Falun Gong and Shen Yun]… they must attract the continuous attention of the entire United States society, and force the U.S. government to strike on all fronts, eliminating the force of Falun Gong.” [emphasis added]
In early December 2024, another internal source shared notes from a Ministry of Public Security video conference about the campaign, highlighting ongoing strategizing, including calls to mobilize additional agents within the Falun Gong community and persuade prominent practitioners into “breaking with Falun Gong” and exposing alleged “dark secrets” about the group.
Learn more:
- Weaponizing Social Media: The CCP’s New Plan to Eliminate Falun Gong Worldwide (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Internal Chinese Source Names Minister of State Security as Driver of Anti-Falun Gong Disinformation (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Chinese Communist Party Leaders Step Up Secret Plans to Attack Falun Gong, Shen Yun, and Epoch Times (World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, December 2024)
What tactics is the regime using?
The emerging disinformation and transnational repression campaign eerily matches the above-stated plans, demonstrating a new, more sophisticated playbook.
The key tactics evident in the campaign thus far include:
Anonymous violent threats, including bomb threats, have targeted Shen Yun performers, theaters, and other Falun Gong-related entities
Beijing-backed YouTubers named in CCP documents have spread false claims or violent threats directed at Falun Gong and Shen Yun
Mainstream media–especially the New York Times—have engaged in biased and misleading reporting based on questionable sources with ties to the Beijing-backed YouTubers and a party-state entity
Individuals or organizations with links to China have filed frivolous lawsuits claiming environment damage or labor rights violations
These individuals and others with ties to China—including now convicted CCP agents—have tried to co-opt U.S. government agencies into launching investigations targeting Shen Yun in terms of its tax-exempt status, environmental damage, or labor rights violations.
False impersonations of Falun Gong practitioners on X or via email have made strange claims or threatened violence
The key tactics evident in the campaign thus far include:
• Anonymous violent threats, including bomb threats, have targeted Shen Yun performers, theaters, and other Falun Gong-related entities
• Beijing-backed YouTubers named in CCP documents have spread false claims or violent threats directed at Falun Gong and Shen Yun
• Mainstream media–especially the New York Times—have engaged in biased and misleading reporting based on questionable sources with ties to the Beijing-backed YouTubers and a party-state entity
• Individuals or organizations with links to China have filed frivolous lawsuits claiming environment damage or labor rights violations
• These individuals and others with ties to China—including now convicted CCP agents—have tried to co-opt U.S. government agencies into launching investigations targeting Shen Yun in terms of its tax-exempt status, environmental damage, or labor rights violations.
• False impersonations of Falun Gong practitioners on X or via email have made strange claims or threatened violence
Learn more:
- Incident Tracker: Monitoring the CCP’s Latest Transnational Repression and Disinformation Campaign against Falun Gong (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Weaponizing Social Media: The CCP’s New Plan to Eliminate Falun Gong Worldwide (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Federal Judge Dismisses Frivolous Lawsuit against Falun Gong, Shen Yun Campus (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Beijing Dance Academy: A Chinese State-owned Art Institute Closely Intertwined with the Chinese Communist Party (Falun Dafa Information Center)
How are these tactics playing out
in real-world examples?
To date, the Falun Dafa Information Center has documented dozens of incidents since January 2024 of anonymous bomb threats, dubious news reports, questionable lawsuits claiming abuse or environmental damage, social media influencers interviewing disgruntled former practitioners, and fake emails impersonating practitioners.
What may at first glance seem like isolated events or incidents unconnected to the CCP, upon closer examination, it is evident that many have common links and patterns pointing back to a coordinated campaign and the regime’s indirect influence. Five concrete examples from recent months illustrate how the multi-faceted tactics of this campaign are playing out in real life.
Coordinated violent threats: In December 2024, anonymous mass shooting threats were sent to theaters scheduled to host Shen Yun performances at opposite ends of the United States—one in Atlanta, the other in San Jose—yet both were sent from the same email address, indicating a coordinated effort. These are only two out of dozens of similar threats sent over the past year to theaters hosting Shen Yun shows, to the company’s training center in New York, and to organizations like the Falun Dafa Information Center. The threats are often graphic, threatening to place explosives at Shen Yun’s facility, burn performers’ houses, or sexually assault female dancers. Many have been accompanied by images of guns and bullets.
Cropped screenshot of a threat received by a California theater on December 11, 2024.
Beijing backed social media influencer helping drive problematic New York Times’ coverage: A YouTuber who has made violent threats against Shen Yun performers and faces illegal weapons charges in the United States has publicly admitted to helping introduce New York Times reporters to disgruntled former Shen Yun members and Falun Gong practitioners for their articles. This YouTuber was listed by name in leaked notes from Ministry of Public Security meetings as someone that the regime’s apparatus should support in his attacks on Falun Gong. Since August, the Times has published a series of one-sided and misleading articles based on this small contingent of former performers, while omitting references to Chinese party-state ties, interviewees’ conflicts of interests or warnings about potential manipulation. Instead, these individuals’ accounts have been given outsized emphasis and been used to make sweeping and distorted claims about Shen Yun and Falun Gong.
Lawfare tactics: A former Shen Yun performer has filed a lawsuit claiming labor rights violations and even human trafficking, garnering widespread media attention, despite large numbers of current and former Shen Yun performers reporting positive experiences and working conditions that do not match her allegations. In fact, a series of Facebook posts show that the plaintiff’s attitude towards Shen Yun has changed dramatically from positive to negative over the past year in correlation to her dance studio in Taiwan establishing ties to Beijing Dance Academy. That innocuously named art institute is actually led by 10 CCP members, including ones with portfolios like propaganda and United Front work.
The complaint also follows a prior pattern of groundless lawsuits filed by groups with China ties trying to claim that Shen Yun’s training center Dragon Springs was causing local environmental damage. A New York judge in September 2024 dismissed such a lawsuit, stating that it was “riddled with deficiencies,” “vague,” and “illogical.” The judge also ruled that the plaintiffs can no longer file similar complaints for the same claims, given that this was their fourth attempt and that they cannot simply “keep throwing [complaints] at the wall until one sticks.” In a recent case unrelated to Falun Gong, two people indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice admitted that filing frivolous lawsuits against CCP critics is a deliberate tactic to tie them up in court and ruin their reputation. Indeed, while local media reported on the filing of the environmental lawsuits, none reported on their dismissal and weak factual underpinning.
Attempts to prompt investigations by U.S. agencies: In 2024, U.S. courts sentenced to prison two CCP agents for attempting to bribe a purported IRS official (actually an undercover FBI agent) into revoking Shen Yun’s tax-exempt status as a non-profit. When exposed in 2023, this was the first publicly known case of such a brazen attempt by the regime to turn U.S. agencies against a dissident target. But in another example of this tactic, the same individuals filing the above-mentioned environmental lawsuits have also lodged complaints with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, prompting agency representatives to visit Dragon Springs to investigate. In all cases, no wrongdoing by Shen Yun and its facilities was found.
This tactic is similarly reflected in the latest inquiry by the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL). Although Shen Yun has operated for 18 years and its practicum program has long been part of a curriculum approved by the state’s department of education, the NYSDOL recently opened an inquiry for the first time. The inquiry followed calls on X by the above-mentioned YouTuber for followers to call local and federal authorities and urge an investigation of Shen Yun. The inquiry received coverage in a front-page article by the New York Times, which reported that it was opened after the paper had sent questions to the agency. Similar to the lawsuits, the CCP’s planned campaign mentions this tactic, which also serves to tie up resources and generate negative media coverage even when baseless.
Fake emails impersonating Falun Gong practitioners: In July 2024, several cases emerged of individuals creating fake accounts on X that impersonate senior Shen Yun staff and make seemingly damaging or outrageous statements. The accounts were removed after complaints to the company but the tactic has reappeared in other settings. In August, multiple departments of the Central Park Zoo in New York City received threatening messages from people claiming to be Falun Gong practitioners who had placed bombs throughout the zoo, with one listing the email of Falun Dafa Information Center executive director Levi Browde as the sender. The zoo, skeptical of the threat’s credibility, contacted Mr. Browde, who confirmed the false impersonation attempt.
More recently, a Canadian parliamentarian who has been publicly supportive of Shen Yun received a suspicious email claiming to be by a former performer, which shared links to the New York Times’ reporting and relayed alleged accounts of overwork and trauma during their time at the company. The parliamentarian questioned the authenticity of the email and informed a local Falun Gong practitioner, who then checked with Shen Yun. In response to the inquiry, Shen Yun confirmed that there was no record of anyone by the name of the alleged sender having performed with the company or studied at the affiliated Fei Tian Academy or College.
Taken together, these and other examples illustrate how behind-the-scenes, the Chinese regime and its proxies are trying to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the U.S. media, social media, and legal sectors, as well as U.S. government agencies to achieve the regime’s goals of silencing Falun Gong and Shen Yun once and for all.
What may at first glance seem like isolated events or incidents unconnected to the CCP, upon closer examination, it is evident that many have common links and patterns pointing back to a coordinated campaign and the regime’s indirect influence. Five concrete examples from recent months illustrate how the multi-faceted tactics of this campaign are playing out in real life.
Coordinated violent threats: In December 2024, anonymous mass shooting threats were sent to theaters scheduled to host Shen Yun performances at opposite ends of the United States—one in Atlanta, the other in San Jose—yet both were sent from the same email address, indicating a coordinated effort. These are only two out of dozens of similar threats sent over the past year to theaters hosting Shen Yun shows, to the company’s training center in New York, and to organizations like the Falun Dafa Information Center. The threats are often graphic, threatening to place explosives at Shen Yun’s facility, burn performers’ houses, or sexually assault female dancers. Many have been accompanied by images of guns and bullets.
Cropped screenshot of a threat received by a California theater on December 11, 2024.
Beijing backed social media influencer helping drive problematic New York Times’ coverage: A YouTuber who has made violent threats against Shen Yun performers and faces illegal weapons charges in the United States has publicly admitted to helping introduce New York Times reporters to disgruntled former Shen Yun members and Falun Gong practitioners for their articles. This YouTuber was listed by name in leaked notes from Ministry of Public Security meetings as someone that the regime’s apparatus should support in his attacks on Falun Gong. Since August, the Times has published a series of one-sided and misleading articles based on this small contingent of former performers, while omitting references to Chinese party-state ties, interviewees’ conflicts of interests or warnings about potential manipulation. Instead, these individuals’ accounts have been given outsized emphasis and been used to make sweeping and distorted claims about Shen Yun and Falun Gong.
Lawfare tactics: A former Shen Yun performer has filed a lawsuit claiming labor rights violations and even human trafficking, garnering widespread media attention, despite large numbers of current and former Shen Yun performers reporting positive experiences and working conditions that do not match her allegations. In fact, a series of Facebook posts show that the plaintiff’s attitude towards Shen Yun has changed dramatically from positive to negative over the past year in correlation to her dance studio in Taiwan establishing ties to Beijing Dance Academy. That innocuously named art institute is actually led by 10 CCP members, including ones with portfolios like propaganda and United Front work.
The complaint also follows a prior pattern of groundless lawsuits filed by groups with China ties trying to claim that Shen Yun’s training center Dragon Springs was causing local environmental damage. A New York judge in September 2024 dismissed such a lawsuit, stating that it was “riddled with deficiencies,” “vague,” and “illogical.” The judge also ruled that the plaintiffs can no longer file similar complaints for the same claims, given that this was their fourth attempt and that they cannot simply “keep throwing [complaints] at the wall until one sticks.” In a recent case unrelated to Falun Gong, two people indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice admitted that filing frivolous lawsuits against CCP critics is a deliberate tactic to tie them up in court and ruin their reputation. Indeed, while local media reported on the filing of the environmental lawsuits, none reported on their dismissal and weak factual underpinning.
Attempts to prompt investigations by U.S. agencies: In 2024, U.S. courts sentenced to prison two CCP agents for attempting to bribe a purported IRS official (actually an undercover FBI agent) into revoking Shen Yun’s tax-exempt status as a non-profit. When exposed in 2023, this was the first publicly known case of such a brazen attempt by the regime to turn U.S. agencies against a dissident target. But in another example of this tactic, the same individuals filing the above-mentioned environmental lawsuits have also lodged complaints with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, prompting agency representatives to visit Dragon Springs to investigate. In all cases, no wrongdoing by Shen Yun and its facilities was found.
This tactic is similarly reflected in the latest inquiry by the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL). Although Shen Yun has operated for 18 years and its practicum program has long been part of a curriculum approved by the state’s department of education, the NYSDOL recently opened an inquiry for the first time. The inquiry followed calls on X by the above-mentioned YouTuber for followers to call local and federal authorities and urge an investigation of Shen Yun. The inquiry received coverage in a front-page article by the New York Times, which reported that it was opened after the paper had sent questions to the agency. Similar to the lawsuits, the CCP’s planned campaign mentions this tactic, which also serves to tie up resources and generate negative media coverage even when baseless.
Fake emails impersonating Falun Gong practitioners: In July 2024, several cases emerged of individuals creating fake accounts on X that impersonate senior Shen Yun staff and make seemingly damaging or outrageous statements. The accounts were removed after complaints to the company but the tactic has reappeared in other settings. In August, multiple departments of the Central Park Zoo in New York City received threatening messages from people claiming to be Falun Gong practitioners who had placed bombs throughout the zoo, with one listing the email of Falun Dafa Information Center executive director Levi Browde as the sender. The zoo, skeptical of the threat’s credibility, contacted Mr. Browde, who confirmed the false impersonation attempt.
More recently, a Canadian parliamentarian who has been publicly supportive of Shen Yun received a suspicious email claiming to be by a former performer, which shared links to the New York Times’ reporting and relayed alleged accounts of overwork and trauma during their time at the company. The parliamentarian questioned the authenticity of the email and informed a local Falun Gong practitioner, who then checked with Shen Yun. In response to the inquiry, Shen Yun confirmed that there was no record of anyone by the name of the alleged sender having performed with the company or studied at the affiliated Fei Tian Academy or College.
Taken together, these and other examples illustrate how behind-the-scenes, the Chinese regime and its proxies are trying to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the U.S. media, social media, and legal sectors, as well as U.S. government agencies to achieve the regime’s goals of silencing Falun Gong and Shen Yun once and for all.
Learn more:
- Incident Tracker: Monitoring the CCP’s Latest Transnational Repression and Disinformation Campaign against Falun Gong (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Diplomatic Disruptions and Disinformation: Beijing’s Global Drive to Stop Shen Yun (Falun Dafa Information Center)
What about the New York Times’ coverage?
They are usually perceived as a credible source of information. Unfortunately, the New York Times has a long track record of inaccurate and distorted coverage of Falun Gong.
More recently, its portrayals are unrecognizable not only to current and former Shen Yun performers, but also to doctors, lawyers, and China specialists closely familiar with Shen Yun and Falun Gong. After a first set of articles was published in August, the Falun Dafa Information Center researched various aspects of the reporting and identified numerous 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. These patterns have continued in subsequent reporting, including recent articles published in November 2024.
The findings raise serious concerns about why the Times would engage in reporting that breaches journalistic ethics, obviously harms a religious minority that is persecuted in China, and essentially serves as a propaganda win for the CCP. Drawing on various sources, including interviews with over 100 current and former Shen Yun performers, the findings also outline the extent to which the paper’s reporting distorts the lived reality of Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun dancers and musicians.
Learn more:
- 10 Things to Know About the New York Times’ “Investigation” of Shen Yun, Falun Gong (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- The Disquieting Backstory of the Civil Complaint Targeting Shen Yun (Shen Yun Performing Arts)
- The New York Times’ Falun Gong Distortion (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- New York Times Coverage of Shen Yun Riddled with Inaccuracies and Exudes Bias (Shen Yun Performing Arts)
Why is the CCP increasing attacks on Shen Yun and Falun Gong?
As noted above, a key driver of this campaign is simply the fact that directives for its implementation are coming from the pinnacle of the CCP security apparatus, including Xi Jinping himself, according to at least one source. That alone activates various incentive structures, personnel, and resources within the party-state to drive a priority initiative forward.
Beyond that, it is difficult to speculate about the motivations driving the actions of an opaque authoritarian regime or leader like Xi. That being said, available evidence and broader familiarity with the CCP’s attitudes and operations point to several factors likely at play:
The regime wants to shut down a potent source of overseas dissent and cultural renaissance: Falun Gong is a spiritual practice from the Buddhist tradition comprising meditation exercises and teachings that encourage believers to follow Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance in their daily lives. In 1999, the CCP banned Falun Gong and launched a brutal campaign to stamp it out. Nevertheless, millions—even tens of millions—of people still practice Falun Gong in China, while hundreds of thousands more have taken up the discipline in over 100 countries around the world. It is thanks to this global diaspora that the Falun Gong community and artistic initiatives like Shen Yun have emerged as influential voices.
Shen Yun cites its mission as reviving traditional Chinese culture, spurring a renaissance of the very traditions and beliefs that the CCP has tried for decades to destroy. Shen Yun’s performances offer a vision of China without communism, expose the regime’s modern-day tyranny, and unravel the farce behind the CCP’s anti-Falun Gong propaganda. The CCP thus fears the impact that Shen Yun’s performances and Falun Gong practitioners grassroots activism can have within and outside China in undermining its legitimacy. This has spurred the regime to constantly engage in attempts to disrupt Falun Gong activities generally, and Shen Yun specifically.
The regime’s prior tactics to censor Shen Yun have often failed: Since Shen Yun’s founding in 2006, the CCP and Chinese diplomats have systematically tried to sabotage and silence Shen Yun.A January 2024 report documented over 130 incidents in 38 countries of such attempted suppression. Prior tactics deployed by the regime and its agents—such as diplomatic pressure on theaters, harassment of performers’ relatives in China, and a bribery scheme to get Shen Yun’s tax-exempt status revoked—were foiled or failed to curb Shen Yun’s success. There have been at least 43 incidents in 19 countries, including the United States, of principled pushback to the regime’s efforts to silence Shen Yun. Thus, despite the CCP’s efforts, Shen Yun’s popularity has increased, with the company growing and performing to packed theaters around the world. In the face of its failures, the regime is turning to murkier, more violent, and more sophisticated tactics to smear the dance company’s reputation and scare away theater managers, prospective performers, and potential theatregoers, while trying to instigate U.S. government agencies to investigate the non-profit.
Party sources point to internal jockeying, fear of sanctions: The information emerging from internal sources within the party’s security apparatus point to three additional factors that could be playing a role, including in the current timing of the campaign. First that Ministry of State Security Chen Yixin is using this as an opportunity to prove his mettle to Xi Jinping and gain favor. Second, that Chinese officials are fearful of new sanctions—including over rights abuses committed against Falun Gong practitioners—by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Third is that the given Falun Gong practitioners’ grassroots dissent within China and relatively large community of believers in Taiwan, the regime is concerned about the role Falun Gong practitioners could play in peaceful resistance to a CCP military invasion of Taiwan. Therefore, the regime wishes to weaken Falun Gong from its “roots” in the United States before launching such an assault on the self-governed, democratic island.
Beyond that, it is difficult to speculate about the motivations driving the actions of an opaque authoritarian regime or leader like Xi. That being said, available evidence and broader familiarity with the CCP’s attitudes and operations point to several factors likely at play:
The regime wants to shut down a potent source of overseas dissent and cultural renaissance: Falun Gong is a spiritual practice from the Buddhist tradition comprising meditation exercises and teachings that encourage believers to follow Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance in their daily lives. In 1999, the CCP banned Falun Gong and launched a brutal campaign to stamp it out. Nevertheless, millions—even tens of millions—of people still practice Falun Gong in China, while hundreds of thousands more have taken up the discipline in over 100 countries around the world. It is thanks to this global diaspora that the Falun Gong community and artistic initiatives like Shen Yun have emerged as influential voices.
Shen Yun cites its mission as reviving traditional Chinese culture, spurring a renaissance of the very traditions and beliefs that the CCP has tried for decades to destroy. Shen Yun’s performances offer a vision of China without communism, expose the regime’s modern-day tyranny, and unravel the farce behind the CCP’s anti-Falun Gong propaganda. The CCP thus fears the impact that Shen Yun’s performances and Falun Gong practitioners grassroots activism can have within and outside China in undermining its legitimacy. This has spurred the regime to constantly engage in attempts to disrupt Falun Gong activities generally, and Shen Yun specifically.
The regime’s prior tactics to censor Shen Yun have often failed: Since Shen Yun’s founding in 2006, the CCP and Chinese diplomats have systematically tried to sabotage and silence Shen Yun.A January 2024 report documented over 130 incidents in 38 countries of such attempted suppression. Prior tactics deployed by the regime and its agents—such as diplomatic pressure on theaters, harassment of performers’ relatives in China, and a bribery scheme to get Shen Yun’s tax-exempt status revoked—were foiled or failed to curb Shen Yun’s success. There have been at least 43 incidents in 19 countries, including the United States, of principled pushback to the regime’s efforts to silence Shen Yun. Thus, despite the CCP’s efforts, Shen Yun’s popularity has increased, with the company growing and performing to packed theaters around the world. In the face of its failures, the regime is turning to murkier, more violent, and more sophisticated tactics to smear the dance company’s reputation and scare away theater managers, prospective performers, and potential theatregoers, while trying to instigate U.S. government agencies to investigate the non-profit.
Party sources point to internal jockeying, fear of sanctions: The information emerging from internal sources within the party’s security apparatus point to three additional factors that could be playing a role, including in the current timing of the campaign. First that Ministry of State Security Chen Yixin is using this as an opportunity to prove his mettle to Xi Jinping and gain favor. Second, that Chinese officials are fearful of new sanctions—including over rights abuses committed against Falun Gong practitioners—by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump. Third is that the given Falun Gong practitioners’ grassroots dissent within China and relatively large community of believers in Taiwan, the regime is concerned about the role Falun Gong practitioners could play in peaceful resistance to a CCP military invasion of Taiwan. Therefore, the regime wishes to weaken Falun Gong from its “roots” in the United States before launching such an assault on the self-governed, democratic island.
Learn more:
- Weaponizing Social Media: The CCP’s New Plan to Eliminate Falun Gong Worldwide (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Internal Chinese Source Names Minister of State Security as Driver of Anti-Falun Gong Disinformation (Falun Dafa Information Center)
- Chinese Communist Party Leaders Step Up Secret Plans to Attack Falun Gong, Shen Yun, and Epoch Times (World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, December 2024)
- Diplomatic Disruptions and Disinformation: Beijing’s Global Drive to Stop Shen Yun (Falun Dafa Information Center)
Why does this matter?
Because this is harming a unique cultural performance and religious group, while serving as a test case for whether the CCP is able to manipulate American public opinion and international media against innocent people and a successful U.S. company.
The CCP’s reinvigorated campaign is already causing harm. Over the past year, at least 15 incidents have been documented that involved threats of violence—or actually physical attacks—against Falun Gong practitioners or Shen Yun performers. Meanwhile, the community is feeling the psychological impact of facing an unfair and misleading assault in the media. “Being demonized in the mainstream media is bizarre and traumatic,” says Lillian Parker, a student at Fei Tian College who also performs with Shen Yun. She reports seeing the strain this campaign has put on friends, families and the community as a whole.
Perhaps the most distraught are refugees from China who fled terrible persecution there, and have settled in the United States to build a new life for themselves. Many still carry haunting memories of how China’s state-run media vilified them and spread disinformation about their faith—all in an effort to shore up support for the nationwide campaign to “eradicate Falun Gong.”
Steven Wang is a dancer with Shen Yun who suffered through years of persecution in China and whose mother is currently imprisoned there for sharing information about Falun Gong. He is now a U.S. citizen but back in China witnessed how the state-run media stirred up hatred among his classmates, neighbors, and even family.
“It all started with rampant disinformation about Falun Gong. And once the media was able to turn enough people against Falun Gong, it became much easier for people to condone the violence, the torture… the inhumanity. Honestly, when I read these articles attacking Shen Yun and our Falun Gong faith, I see no difference. It’s the same tactics, the same lies. It’s terrifying.”
“It all started with rampant disinformation about Falun Gong. And once the media was able to turn enough people against Falun Gong, it became much easier for people to condone the violence, the torture… the inhumanity. Honestly, when I read these articles attacking Shen Yun and our Falun Gong faith, I see no difference. It’s the same tactics, the same lies. It’s terrifying.”
But the potential impact reaches far beyond the Falun Gong community itself. Although the primary target of this campaign is Shen Yun and the larger Falun Gong religious groups, the ramifications are broader, striking at the very heart of American liberty and sovereignty. Should this campaign succeed, it would constitute a blueprint for Beijing to turn the U.S. media, government, and public discourse against any American target of its choosing.
What can be done?
The Falun Dafa Information Center is urging relevant U.S. agencies to take immediate action to investigate this ongoing and sophisticated CCP malign influence campaign.
We hope that steps can be taken quickly to undermine its impact before it does long-lasting damage to a U.S. nonprofit and diaspora artistic initiative that contributes unique cultural value to the United States and the world.
Meanwhile, please help share the information on this page so that more people can see through the lies that the CCP—and various witting or unwitting proxies—are spreading.
