Protected: Manipulating America: The CCP’s Latest Campaign to Sabotage Shen Yun, Malign Falun Gong

Falun Gong practitioners around the world have long been targets of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) smear campaigns and transnational repression. Yet, over the past year, the CCP has unleashed 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, many of whose performers practice Falun Gong. This 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. Internal Chinese sources indicate that this initiative follows instructions from CCP leader Xi Jinping to escalate attacks on Falun Gong overseas. At the implementation level, the effort is a joint venture between China’s Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Public Security, and is allegedly spearheaded by Chinese Minister of State Security Chen Yixin. To date, this illicit campaign has demonstrated an ability to weaponize American mainstream media, bait government agencies, and take advantage of the U.S. judicial system. The Falun Dafa Information Center has been tracking this campaign since late 2023 after noticing an uptick in 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 advanced notice about the campaign 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 is able to successfully engage in such manipulation. Being on the frontlines of this attack, we are dismayed to see the loopholes in U.S. resilience, but hope you can keep an open mind as you read further. What is happening? The CCP is escalating its anti-Falun Gong campaign with a focus on the United States. 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 calling for greater freedom in China, undermining CCP propaganda, and offering a vision of China without communism. Alongside its brutal 25-year persecution of Falun Gong practitioners within China, the CCP has also sought to silence and repress Falun Gong activities around the world. Since 2006, this has included a systematic campaign to sabotage and silence Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based classical Chinese dance troupe many of whose performers practice Falun Gong. These efforts have recently intensified, with attacks taking on new forms in a campaign designed to “eliminate Falun Gong worldwide” with a special focus on the United States. 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) Why now? Prior tactics deployed by the regime and its agents—such as diplomatic pressure on theaters, harassment of performers’ relatives in China, and a brazen bribery scheme to get Shen Yun’s tax-exempt status revoked—were foiled or failed to curb Shen Yun’s success. As such, the CCP is turning to more sophisticated and manipulative tactics that take advantage of U.S. vulnerabilities in the media, social media, and legal sectors, as well as U.S. government agencies. Where is this coming from? 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, first from Xi Jinping himself and then from the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security. Visible activities are being carried out by various proxies, such as Beijing-backed social media influencers and individuals with ties to party-run entities like the Beijing Dance Academy. In early August, the Falun Dafa Information Center published a report on the anticipated and emerging tactics, drawing on internal MPS sources. The sources cites strategies such as the following, which was included in detailed notes from internal MPS meetings held in June 2024: “Mobilize concealed agents to create and escalate the internal conflicts of Falun Gong, to expand nonstop the fighting strength, depth, and reach of … 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.” 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) 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 include: 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, while trying to trigger investigations by U.S. government agencies False impersonations of Falun Gong practitioners on X or via email have made strange claims or threatened violence Anonymous violent threats, including bomb threats, targeting Shen Yun performers A small group of instigators is the primary source of distorted news coverage: Many of these attacks trace back to a small number of individuals, some with direct ties to the Chinese party-state, others potentially being manipulated based on political biases or perceived unfair treatment. Yet, in news coverage, their accounts have been given outsized emphasis and used to make sweeping and distorted claims about Shen Yun and Falun Gong; references to interviewees’ potential conflicts of interest or CCP ties have been omitted. 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 Infromation Center) Beijing Dance Academy: A Chinese State-owned Art Institute Closely Intertwined with the Chinese Communist Party (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, 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 also worth noting and deeply disturbing. 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 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 13 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 U.S. 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. But the potential impact reaches far beyond the Falun Gong community itself.Although the primary target of this campaign is Shen Yun and the broader 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 the CCP—and various proxies—are spreading.

Protected: Manipulating America: The CCP’s Latest Campaign to Sabotage Shen Yun, Malign Falun Gong

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Protected: Manipulating America: The CCP’s Latest Campaign to Sabotage Shen Yun, Malign Falun Gong

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THE FALUN GONG STORY

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