Threats Against Shen Yun and Falun Gong Highlighted During Forum to Discuss the CCP’s Transnational Repression

(Minghui.org) A forum was held on the afternoon of June 6, 2025 to discuss the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) campaign of misinformation and legal warfare in the U.S. to attack Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts. Speakers during the forum titled: “The CCP’s Escalating Transnational Repression” included elected officials, China experts, and lawyers.

Staffers working for officials who are members of foreign affairs committees in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and media reporters attended the event. Several speakers said the regime must be held accountable, and action needs to be taken to stop the CCP from launching terrorist acts that threaten U.S. national security.

The CCP’s Escalating Transnational Repression Forum was held at the U.S. Capitol on June 6, 2025.

Chinese Law Professor: Information and Legal Warfare Threatens US National Security

Former Law Professor at Beijing University Yuan Hongbing attended the event virtually and answered questions. He shared information provided by high level contacts inside the regime.

Yuan Hongbing, former Law Professor at Beijing University, spoke virtually at the event.

“Xi Jinping held a secret meeting prior to the 20th National Congress in China. He mentioned Falun Gong’s development outside of China and his plan to initiate another round of persecution outside of China. According to reports, the CCP's tactics can be summed up to one central focus and two directives. The focus is on character assassination of Falun Gong’s founder in a bid to shake the foundation of the spiritual group. The two basic directions include information warfare and legal warfare. The information warfare is to mobilize the mainstream media in Western society, using defamation, lies and other tactics to strike on all fronts against Falun Gong and disrupt the influence of Falun Gong practitioners in international society, and also to provide false information to media outlets founded by Falun Gong practitioners with the ultimate goal of damaging the reputation of these media.”

Yuan said, “One of the main tactics they employ is to infiltrate mainstream media in the West. They’re using greed as a lever, using different [forms of] bribery, causing these media to publish articles that are designed to attack Falun Gong practitioners provided by the CCP’s proxy. They are also trying to mobilize the Western legal system against the founder of Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts, as well as other media and other organizations created by Falun Gong practitioners, suing them and also using false accusations, trying to use this legal procedure, using false accusations, to destroy the reputation of Falun Gong and to destroy the reputation of Falun Gong practitioners. They’re also trying to drag out the legal process and waste their time, effort and money. So whether it’s information warfare or legal welfare, the CCP regime is trying to use the legal system in the West, as well as the media outlets, to complete its conspiracy against Falun Gong.”

He thought that the CCP’s persecution against Falun Gong outside of China is mostly coordinated by the Ministry of State Security, but all this legal warfare and information warfare are essentially under the directive of Chen Yixin, who is the head of the Ministry of State Security. He said that the CCP will use Western society’s legal and democratic system against Falun Gong.

Professor Yuan said, “From the CCP’s legal and information warfare against Falun Gong practitioners in the United States, we can see the CCP’s united front infiltration is already becoming a severe threat to America’s national security.”

There Needs to Be Accountability

Piero Tozzi, Staff Director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), said he has been following the CCP’s blatant campaign of transnational oppression for years. The regime’s repression beyond China’s borders has only increased, even here on U.S. Soil, and it continues to target Falun Gong practitioners and fellow democracy advocates.

Piero Tozzi, Staff Director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), addressed the panel.

He said, “Shen Yun, which holds a noble mission of showing China before communism and reviving traditional Chinese culture, has been relentlessly targeted by the Chinese government for its religiosity and depiction of the CCP’s historic campaign of cruelty and violence against peaceful practitioners of Falun Dafa.

He observed that, “Shen Yun Performing Arts shows around the world have become the CCP’s target of attacks. The CCP has targeted Shen Yun hundreds of times since its inception in 2006, through threatening performance venues that host them, sponsors that support them and even the performers and their family members.

“In recent years, there’s been a surge in such threats, even right here in Washington D.C., as evidenced by a bomb threat called into the Kennedy Center this year in advance of the Shen Yun performance. This is in addition to the sudden barrage of bomb and death threats received earlier earlier this year—not only [targeting] Shen Yun performers, but also Falun Gong practitioners and directed at members of Congress who are supportive of Falun Gong.”

Piero mentioned the case where the Department of Justice convicted two men in 2024 for acting as illegal agents of the PRC government.

As part of the CCP’s persecution campaign against Falun Gong, John Chen and Lin Feng engaged in a CCP directed scheme to manipulate the IRS’ Whistleblower Program in an effort to strip the tax-exempt status of Shen Yun. Chen was later sentenced to 20 months in prison. Lin Feng was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment. In addition to his prison term, Chen was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $50,000.

Li Ping was charged for acting as a CCP agent but not notifying the Attorney General. One of his crimes was collecting and sharing information about Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S. with China’s Ministry of State Security. He was sentenced to 48 months in prison, fined $250,000 and made to serve 3 years of supervised release.

Piero said, “I strongly condone steps to provide justice for the global victims of the CCP’s, repressive regime, just as much as I condemn the actions of the CCP, but much more needs to be done to prevent further harassment and violence. Congressman Smith, along with colleagues in the Senate, previously introduced the transnational repression Policy Act.”

“There needs to be accountability. Justice delayed is justice denied,” Piero said.

An Escalation in the CCP’s Transnational Repression Tactics

Mark Yang, a researcher at the Falun Dafa Information Center, said, “As Professor Yang Hong Bing described earlier, this escalation that we are seeing right now is a result of a top down directive. Leaked information indicates that Xi Jinping himself ordered disinformation campaigns and legal warfare against Falun Gong practitioners and we are witnessing these tactics unfold.”

Mark Yang, a researcher at Falun Dafa Information Center, listed incidents of the CCP’s attempts to sabotage Shen Yun shows.

He said, “From 2006 to 2024, the FDI documented over 130 attempts to sabotage Shen Yun’s shows, including cyber attacks, slashing bus tires, and pressuring theaters to cancel performances through CCP consulates and embassies.

“However, since 2024, we are seeing a drastic escalation in the scale, severity, and complexity of these efforts. From 2024 to May 2025, a little over a year, the FDI has documented over 110 cases worldwide, with many concentrated in the United States. A significant number of these incidents involved bomb threats and mass shooting threats targeting theaters hosting Shen Yun. Additionally, threats of arson, rape, mass shootings, and car accidents were directed at Shen Yun’s headquarters in upstate New York.

“Beyond these terrorist threats, we are also noticing the CCP’s tactics have grown increasingly sophisticated. Since August 2024, The New York Times has published 12 articles portraying Shen Yun negatively, often with distorted, inaccurate, and misleading information lacking critical context. But the NYT never gave voice to the majority of performers that reported positive experiences. Actually, over 750 former and current performers and over 800 family members signed a petition denouncing the NYT’s coverage as gross distortions and false narratives about their work, faith, and way of life.”

End the CCP’s Totalitarian Ideologies and Evil Practices

Dr. Terri Marsh, executive director of the Human Rights Law Foundation, provided a short summary discussing the CCP’s engagement in terrorist activities against such groups as Falun Gong through its operation of purge campaigns in China and under US law.

Eric Patterson, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation President (VOC), speaks at the event.

Eric Patterson, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation President (VOC), gave a few recent examples of the CCP’s transnational repression tactics at the panel.

He said, “As we think about the issues that we’ve discussed today, let’s hope that we can end these totalitarian ideologies and these evil practices so that the next generation needs fewer such heroes.”