The Chinese Communist Party has launched disinformation campaigns to pitch the U.S. government against the Falun Gong religious group.
Falun Gong adherents march during a parade calling for the end of the Chinese Communist Party’s 25 years of ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China at the National Mall in Washington on July 11, 202
The Chinese regime is implementing plans to “eradicate Falun Gong worldwide” by pitching the U.S. government against the faith group, according to leaked documents
obtained by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), a U.S.-based human rights watchdog.
Notes from two meetings of China’s top espionage and security agencies also revealed plans to stop U.S. human rights sanctions “by any means necessary.”
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The faith—rooted in traditional Chinese culture and not aligned with communist ideology—attracted more than 70 million adherents in China by 1999, according to official estimates. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), however, perceived its popularity as an existential threat.
At the May and June nationwide virtual meetings hosted by the Ministries of State and Public Securities, top Party officials reiterated that they saw Falun Gong as a “hidden security threat” at home and believed that without international support driven by the members of the spiritual practice overseas, the faith group would cease to exist in China.
According to WOIPFG’s source, the Party apparatus carried out multiple disinformation campaigns, including one particularly to drive a wedge between the U.S. government and Falun Gong practitioners in the country by spreading claims such as “the U.S. government has been bought by the CCP and will ban Falun Gong.”
WOIPFG learned that a dedicated propaganda team was tasked to craft such messages, which would then be spread online and by CCP special agents among Falun Gong practitioners to steer the group members to protest against the U.S. government. The United States became the primary focus due to its global leadership and the efforts of U.S.-based Falun Gong practitioners to raise awareness of the Party’s persecution.
The CCP’s directives also included infiltrating Shen Yun Performing Arts and The Epoch Times and targeting them for lawsuits. Both organizations were established by Falun Gong practitioners and are headquartered in the United States. Shen Yun showcases China before communist influence through Chinese classical dance and music, while The Epoch Times reports uncensored news about China and the CCP, including the persecution of Falun Gong.
One specific guidance included in the leaked documents indicated how much the CCP fears the free flow of information.
“No more persecution information, especially forced organ harvesting, should leave China for the overseas Falun Gong to win sympathy,” the document states, according to WOIPFG.
“Each level should plan out detailed countermeasures, break the information flow, and stop the information from being fed to Falun Gong outside China.”
According to WOIPFG, top Party officials in the security apparatus communicated the high-level action plans at the conferences based on the overarching directives of CCP leader Xi Jinping.
A recent Epoch Times exclusive article
reported for the first time Xi’s instructions for a shift in persecution strategy in October 2022, based on sources different than WOIPFG’s. Right before Xi secured his third term, he told top Party officials overseeing political, intelligence, and influence operations that he viewed the persecution campaign against Falun Gong as a failure.
He ordered these officials to refresh their persecution efforts under new approaches: attacking the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi, and his wife via public opinion and legal warfare. Both communist tactics seek to use disinformation and the legal system to target an adversary.
Communist Persecution Escalated on US Soil
The outcome of Xi’s instructions and high-level action plans devised and implemented by espionage and security agencies have surfaced in American society.Last month, a federal judge
sentenced a Chinese man for trying to bribe an IRS agent into opening an investigation into Shen Yun in order to strip the company of its nonprofit status.
Wang Zhiyuan, director of the WOIPFG, said that the leaked security meeting notes are very pertinent now because he saw an escalation of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong in the United States.
“The intensification of persecution overseas in the past two years has been particularly severe, highlighted by the negative articles targeting Shen Yun in The New York Times,” he told The Epoch Times, adding that he wanted to “alert the public that these actions are part of a coordinated effort to dismantle Falun Gong worldwide completely.”
The New York Times ran six articles about Shen Yun between August and November, alleging that the performing arts group mistreated its artists and illegally used teenage and child performers. In response, Shen Yun
said the articles were “riddled with inaccuracies” and that “students perform with Shen Yun as part of a curriculum approved by the New York State Department of Education.”
Last month, a former Shen Yun dancer who was quoted in The New York Times articles filed a lawsuit against Shen Yun on similar charges. The performing arts group has
said the legal case was “undoubtedly part of a coordinated offensive against our company being orchestrated by the Chinese regime.”
Lawmakers across the aisle have
voiced concerns about the Chinese communist regime’s renewed wave of transnational repression campaigns targeting Falun Gong. Most recently, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) suggested a potential solution.
“Xi Jinping will be remembered for the atrocities that he has committed against the Falun Gong and others,“ he told The Epoch Times. ”It’s still not too late for him to reverse course and become someone who respects the dignity of other people. And he’s not doing it.”
The chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs said that the United States should “link trade with human rights observance” to hold Xi accountable.
The congressman noted that exporting is crucial to the Chinese economy and Xi.
“Without exporting, Xi Jinping is toast,“ Smith said. ”There’s no way he survives as a dictator.”
Attacks Targeting The Epoch Times
The Chinese public security source said the CCP has an overseas special task force targeting some critical Falun Gong practitioners in The Epoch Times.Beijing sees the independent news organization as a high-value target to take down if the CCP were to eradicate Falun Gong outside China, according to the WOIPFG source.
The intel from the May and June meetings aligns with an earlier tip The Epoch Times had received.
In March, China’s Ministry of Public Security, Central Propaganda Department, United Front Work Department, and Ministry of State Security held a joint meeting and outlined plans to target The Epoch Times and its operations in Hong Kong, according to a source in the CCP’s central propaganda department.
The propaganda official also revealed that many Chinese high-ranking officials were reading New Epoch Weekly, a Chinese-language weekly news magazine sold in Hong Kong; consequently, several such officials had been disciplined over the years. The magazine provides information unavailable in China, including about sanctions, congressional hearings, and other policies the West initiates against the Chinese regime due to its human rights violations and economic and military aggressions.
The source said the downfall of Zhang Guilin, the former director of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, was such an example. The CCP announced charges against Zhang in June 2023, seven months after he was placed under investigation.
The top charge against him was “weak political awareness and the possession and reading of books and publications with severe political problems.” The corruption allegations were secondary in his case.
According to the propaganda official, Zhang’s publication collections included New Epoch Weekly and several banned books about infighting among the CCP’s top leadership.
The CCP Fears Sanctions
At the May meeting convened by the Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC), the agency responsible for directing the persecution of Falun Gong since its inception, Party senior officials expressed deep concerns about Western leaders’ support for Falun Gong and the possibility of sanctions against those involved in the persecution, according to the leaked notes obtained by WOIPFG.“Pay special attention to the partnership plan between Falun Gong and Western politicians on sanctioning our high-ranking leaders—must stop such actions at all costs,” reads one directive.
The State Department has
sanctioned CCP officials with known records of human rights abuses, including the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners.
In addition, perpetrators of human rights abuses in Hong Kong and genocide in Xinjiang have also been sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act. Smith initiated the legislation from the House. The law, enacted in 2012, provides the legal framework for the U.S. government to sanction foreign human rights offenders by freezing their assets and refusing entry into the United States.
WOIPFG’s Wang said that his organization maintains a tracking system with a detailed list of names and alleged crimes of the perpetrators involved in the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
“Since July 2004, we have been submitting the updated list each year to the FBI and relevant institutions worldwide,” Wang said, adding that WOIPFG would now expand its system to “fully investigate and track down those responsible for persecuting Falun Gong outside China.”
Sherry Dong and Petr Svab contributed to this report.
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