Chinese Author Urges US to Defend Freedom as CCP Targets Shen Yun and Falun Gong

.

A prominent Chinese American author and longtime pro-democracy activist is urging the U.S. government and public to confront Beijing’s escalating campaign of transnational repression—one that increasingly targets Shen Yun Performing Arts and the spiritual group Falun Gong on American soil.

Drawing from his own experience after editing a book on the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jiang Pinchao shed light on how far the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is willing to go to silence dissent within and beyond China’s borders.

Since its founding in New York in 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts has aimed to revive traditional Chinese culture and present “China before communism.” The CCP has made Shen Yun a priority target for sabotage, harassment, and other threats and attacks for years.

In 2024, the New York-based dance company faced a barrage of media attacks, online smears, lawsuits, and a wave of bomb and death threats directed at theaters hosting Shen Yun performances, as well as the company’s training campus.

“This is unrestricted warfare—and it’s state terrorism,” Jiang told The Epoch Times.

A devout Christian and an author whose works are archived at the U.S. Library of Congress, Jiang has himself been a target of the CCP’s coercive tactics.

“The CCP wants to destroy your spirit through fear—to plunge you into a psychological war you feel you can’t escape,” Jiang said.

Jiang was the editor of “Collection of June Fourth Poems,” a 2007 anthology that documents the voices of survivors of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and supporters of China’s student-led pro-democracy movement that preceded it. Among Chinese democracy activists, the book is often referred to simply as the “Tiananmen Poems.”

He recalled how, in the mid-2000s, he received persistent threats and online abuse for his work compiling the Tiananmen Poems. His email inbox was flooded with death threats. On forums, coordinated troll attacks to smear and defame him were overwhelming, Jiang said.

“It felt like the whole world was being controlled by these forces,” he said. “And when I realized my private phone calls were being monitored, it felt as if someone was following me everywhere. The atmosphere was deeply intimidating.”

According to multiple CCP whistleblowers, the latest transnational repression campaign—initiated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2022—has specifically targeted Falun Gong, its founder Mr. Li Hongzhi, and three entities founded by Falun Gong practitioners: Shen Yun, The Epoch Times, and NTD Television.

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice that gained popularity in the 1990s, with between 70 million and 100 million people practicing. Then in 1999, the regime’s top leadership ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. Since then, millions have been subjected to arbitrary arrest, torture, forced labor, and even forced organ harvesting. The communist regime has also used its state-controlled media apparatus and its influence over foreign media, to bolster its persecution.

In 2024, The New York Times published 12 articles sharply critical of Falun Gong and Shen Yun. The articles have drawn criticism for relying heavily on a handful of former Shen Yun performers.

“It’s hard not to think there’s a purpose behind it,” Jiang said. “The New York Times’ actions—attacking a faith group and causing real harm—violate the core American value of religious freedom.”

According to whistleblower accounts and law enforcement reports, tactics deployed to intimidate and undermine the group include coordinated legal actions, disinformation via social media influencers, and physical threats.

Dragon Springs, Shen Yun’s headquarters in upstate New York where its students live and study, also received a bomb threat in March.

Jiang said the CCP’s aggressive focus on Shen Yun is no accident. “Shen Yun is the signature project of Falun Gong—just like the Tiananmen Poems was for pro-democracy activists overseas. And just like they wanted to destroy our work then, they want to destroy Shen Yun now.”

He added that the CCP has a long history of threatening and harassing dissidents’ family members who still live in China. While he was compiling the Tiananmen Poems, the CCP targeted his relatives in an effort to pressure him to abandon the project.

“The CCP looks for your weak spots,” he said. “It will exploit whatever channel it can to threaten, blackmail, and try to break your will. That’s what unrestricted warfare looks like.”

According to Jiang, the Party now views Falun Gong as its most organized and persistent ideological opponent.

“The Falun Gong group has exposed the crimes of communism more effectively than any other group,” he said. “In the eyes of an atheist regime, people of faith who stand together form a powerful, unshakable force. That terrifies the CCP.”

He further stated that supporting Falun Gong is not just about defending one group—it’s about standing up for the very principles on which America was founded.

“America was built on faith and freedom. Supporting Falun Gong is, in fact, supporting American values, supporting the American people, and protecting national interests,” Jiang said.