Right now, the Chinese Communist Party is waging a secret war against Chinese Americans who fled persecution in China. The goal? To turn public opinion and the U.S. government against the Falun Gong spiritual practice.
Ahead of CCP Chairman Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, I’m asking you to stand with Falun Gong practitioners and support their freedom of belief.
Falun Gong is a Buddhist-based spiritual practice rooted in traditional Chinese culture. It became extremely popular in China in the 1990s. A survey found that Falun Gong practitioners even outnumbered members of the CCP. Former CCP leader Jiang Zemin viewed this popularity as a threat and launched the persecution in 1999.
But despite 27 years of persecution, the CCP has not managed to silence Falun Gong. Quite the opposite. Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S. have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about Beijing’s human rights abuses and the regime’s efforts to infiltrate and weaken America’s ”stuff the CCP doesn’t want you to know about.”
According to CCP insiders, in 2022, Xi held a secret meeting ordering a new strategy to eradicate Falun Gong in the U.S. The strategy relies on lawfare and spreading disinformation via our social media and American media outlets.
The CCP is especially targeting Shen Yun Performing Arts, the American classical Chinese dance company founded by Falun Gong practitioners. Performances showcase China before communism and depict the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong. Beijing doesn’t want you to see the show, and it’s been spreading disinformation about Shen Yun and trying to disrupt performances, including sending more than 150 violent threats.
The Kennedy Center was even evacuated because of a hoax bomb threat. Beijing has also sent death threats targeting American Shen Yun performers and their families. It’s ironic that CCP officials, including Xi, feel safe sending their own children to the U.S. to study and enjoy the freedoms we have here, yet they’re trying to use American institutions to suppress Falun Gong practitioners’ freedom of belief on U.S. soil.
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At its heart, Falun Gong teaches truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Practitioners strive to live up to these principles in daily life: being honest, kind, and persevering through difficulties. This can benefit any society, especially our republic. As Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
The CCP’s own leaked strategy notes name what it fears most: international attention on forced organ harvesting and sanctions targeting the officials responsible. That’s not a coincidence, it’s a road map. Congress already has bills that would do both, the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act and the Stop Transnational Repression Act, currently sitting without a vote. Passing them would hit the CCP exactly where its own notes say it hurts.
Alan Adler is the executive director of Friends of Falun Gong, a U.S.-based human rights organization to support the freedom of belief of persons who practice Falun Gong worldwide for 25 years.