U.S. Circuit Court Rules Falun Gong Practitioners' Lawsuit Against Tech Company Cisco May Proceed

(Minghui.org) The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 7, 2023, that Falun Gong practitioners’ case against U.S.-based tech company Cisco Systems Inc. for assisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in tracking and persecuting Falun Gong practitioners can proceed.

The Chinese Communist Party began its persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Falun Gong practitioners filed a lawsuit against Cisco and two of its former executives, CEO John Chambers and China Vice President Fredy Cheung, in 2011. The suit alleges that Cisco had provided technology to the CCP to help it build a massive surveillance network that it used to identify and track Falun Gong practitioners and that Cisco’s actions led to the plaintiffs’ subsequent arrest and torture. The district court dismissed the lawsuit in 2014.

This week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court on nearly all grounds. The Court reinstated all claims under the Alien Tort Statute against Cisco. The appellate panel noted that the plaintiffs included “specific” allegations that plausibly claim “Cisco provided assistance with [a] substantial effect” on the international law violations committed against the plaintiffs. The panel also noted that the plaintiffs plausibly alleged that “Cisco was aware of the Party and Chinese authorities’ goal to use Golden Shield technology to target Falun Gong adherents” and that targeting involved torture and arbitrary detention.

However, the Court found that the Alien Tort Statute claims against John Chambers and Fredy Cheung could not proceed because much of their individual conduct occurred outside the United States. Finally, the Court also reinstated Falun Gong practitioner Charles Lee’s claims against John Chambers and Fredy Cheung under the Torture Victim Protection Act.

Circuit Court Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote in the majority opinion, “We conclude that Plaintiffs’ allegations, accepted as true, are sufficient to state a plausible claim that Cisco provided essential technical assistance to the douzheng of Falun Gong with awareness that the international law violations of torture, arbitrary detention, disappearance, and extrajudicial killing were substantially likely to take place.” Her use of the word “douzheng” refers to the CCP’s violent political repression against groups it perceives as enemies.

Judge Berzon concluded that liability for “aiding and abetting” could apply because many of Cisco’s alleged activities took place in the U.S.

Terri Marsh, executive director of the Human Rights Law Foundation, is one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. She said the latest development in the case is a positive step in curbing the persecution of Falun Gong. “The message is clear,” she said. "US companies and their executive officers cannot further human rights [violations] in China with impunity. They must be held accountable. They will be held accountable.”

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Note: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is one of the thirteen federal courts of appeal. Its jurisdiction is one level below that of the U.S. Supreme Court, and it has more than twice as many judges as the Supreme Court. The Ninth Circuit oversees and hears appeals from judicial districts in the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, as well as the territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.