New Report: CCP Leaks Reveal Worldwide Disinformation Campaign to “Eliminate” Falun Gong and Shen Yun

NEW YORK—China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and other Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations have launched an unprecedented campaign to “eliminate” Falun Gong globally, especially in the United States, and to undermine Shen Yun Performing Arts, a popular classical Chinese dance company many of whose performers practice Falun Gong. To implement the new initiative, CCP entities will—or have already begun to—support social media influencers who spread disinformation about these targets, manipulate search engine results, and “activate” a network of agents worldwide. This is according to a series of newly leaked internal sources, visible shifts in CCP propaganda, and detailed analysis published in a report released today by the Falun Dafa Information Center.

The report, titled Weaponizing Social Media: The CCP’s New Plan to “Eliminate” Falun Gong Worldwide, exposes information made available from two sources who leaked detailed notes from provincial-level MPS meetings held in June 2024, and a third source that shared the content of a July 2024 internal report issued by the state-run China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC). The leaked information describes a strategic decision by the regime’s security apparatus to escalate its persecution of Falun Gong around the world and outlines detailed plans to turn global public opinion against Falun Gong and Shen Yun via a multi-pronged information manipulation campaign. 

The sources cite specific tactics to be used in the campaign, which consist of coordinated propaganda attacks against Falun Gong and Shen Yun, including by “fully supporting” two explicitly named YouTubers who have already begun to spread disinformation about these targets; using embedded agents and false information to sow discord within the Falun Gong community and between Falun Gong practitioners and the U.S. government; manipulating search engine optimization; and feeding defamatory information about Falun Gong to mainstream Western media. The regime’s stated goal is to “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.”

This new offensive is the latest strategy in a 25-year campaign to “eradicate” Falun Gong inside China, which has also included a global and systematic effort to suppress the Falun Gong diaspora around the world who are raising awareness of the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses.

“We have been targeted by the CCP’s systematic campaign of transnational repression for 25 years, but it has largely failed to silence our voice on the world stage,” says Falun Dafa Information Center executive director, Levi Browde. “This new CCP strategy targets Falun Gong at perhaps Western democracies’ most vulnerable entry point—social media platforms. In that space, our free society is wholly unequipped to deal with a focused, coordinated attack by a hostile foreign regime, which launders disinformation with sufficient deception that it can often wind up in our mainstream media without any obvious connections to Beijing. This is precisely how the CCP aims to control the thoughts of Americans.”

Dual Targets: Falun Gong and Shen Yun

Central to the CCP’s transnational repression of Falun Gong has been a systematic effort to silence Shen Yun Performing Arts, a U.S.-based classical Chinese dance company founded by elite artists who fled persecution in China, including for practicing Falun Gong. Shen Yun’s shows portray traditional Chinese culture, which the CCP has sought to destroy for decades. The shows also depict the modern-day tyranny of the CCP, including the persecution of Falun Gong. In a January 2024 report, our organization documented over 130 incidents across 38 countries of the regime and its proxies’ attempts to silence and malign Shen Yun.

The targeting of Shen Yun as part of the regime’s crusade against Falun Gong continues in the current campaign, with CCP agents taking advantage of two YouTubers who have been airing false claims about Shen Yun since 2023. According to the newly revealed internal sources, officials in China’s public security bureau issued directives in June 2024 to “all provincial governments to provide resources to fully support [the two YouTubers listed by name], etc. to have a fight with Falun Gong,” as well as deploying “50-cent party” accounts to amplify the YouTubers’ content. Officials demanded the use “of all various channels to provide materials to these people, supplying all malicious information on the Falun Gong gathered by the public security internally” and to “mobilize concealed agents” to escalate internal conflicts within the Falun Gong community as well as create a rift between the Falun Gong community and the U.S. government. 

In addition to spreading  CCP propaganda points that have long been used to demonize Falun Gong and Shen Yun, the current campaign also seeks to propagate and amplify false assertions with the best chance of having legal ramifications within the United States. 

“This new campaign is essentially a CCP propaganda and disinformation Blitzkrieg—an  attempt to deploy rapid, overwhelming force on social media and mainstream media to eliminate our ability to assemble, speak, or be heard in the West, while trying to create divisions in the Falun Gong community and provoke distrust with the U.S. government,” says Browde. “We are entering uncharted territory and one of the most worrisome findings from our research is that key aspects of this campaign are already underway.”

Falun Dafa Information Center researchers indeed found an uptick in visible social media attacks and account impersonations in recent months, including the spreading of blatantly false information about Shen Yun. There is also evidence that the regime’s security forces are using the disinformation in these YouTubers’ videos to try and turn overseas practitioners who visit China against Falun Gong and then recruit them as agents. 

International action needed

In light of these developments, it is crucial for the U.S. government and relevant stakeholders to take immediate and proactive measures. The report’s recommendations call for thorough investigations into the activities of CCP-linked influencers and agents operating on American soil to counter these escalating attacks and to deter future ones against Falun Gong and other CCP targets. Establishing clear lines of communication between Falun Gong representatives and key U.S. government offices would also help swiftly address any illicit actions by the CCP. 

Moreover, collaboration with social media platforms like YouTube and X is vital to detect and dismantle illicit CCP-backed disinformation campaigns. Fast-tracking the passage of the Falun Gong Protection Act could also provide necessary legal tools to sanction Chinese officials involved in these malicious activities. By taking these steps, the United States can ensure that these disinformation efforts do not gain traction, thereby safeguarding the rights and freedoms of those targeted by the CCP’s aggressive tactics.

To read the full report, see here. To interview one of the authors, email .