A new policy brief released by the Falun Dafa Information Center reveals an aggressive and comprehensive campaign by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to silence and malign Shen Yun Performing Arts — a U.S.-based non-profit and widely acclaimed performing arts company. 

The Jan. 8 report titled “Diplomatic Disruptions and Disinformation: Beijing’s Global Drive to Stop Shen Yun,” details the most extensive global effort of Beijing-driven artistic censorship to date. The campaign, which forms a crucial part of the CCP’s wider transnational repression targeting Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, aims to shed light on the many strategies used to undermine and discredit Shen Yun and its supporters. 

‘Targeted crackdown’

According to the brief, more than 130 incidents of harassment, sabotage, disinformation, and physical attacks have been perpetrated by Chinese officials or their proxies against Shen Yun in 38 countries — including in the U.S., since 2007. 

Internal party documents unearthed in the report expose directives from the highest levels of the CCP’s central authorities, categorizing the suppression of Shen Yun as an “important part of the struggle against Falun Gong.” The documents also revealed how lower-tier security officials are instructed to conduct “targeted crackdowns” on the group.

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Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a traditional Chinese spiritual practice involving meditation and moral improvement. It gained tens of millions of adherents in the 1990s, but was banned by the CCP in July 1999 and subject to a deadly persecution campaign. Since then, thousands of Falun Gong adherents have perished at the hands of Chinese police — with the real number of deaths speculated to be in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions. 

Central to the CCP’s sabotage campaign against Falun Gong and Shen Yun lie in personnel acting as CCP agents or spies based out of People’s Republic of China (PRC) embassies and consulates on a global scale, the report notes. 

These agents have been known to employ tactics such as disinformation, economic coercion, and threats to dissuade local theaters and governments from hosting Shen Yun performances. Of the 135 documented incidents of interference, 81 showcase the expansive and centrally-directed nature of Beijing’s campaign to censor and oppress artistic groups and freedom of expression outside of China. 

‘Destroying China’s traditional culture’

Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center and one of the report’s authors, emphasizes the CCP’s longstanding efforts to eradicate Falun Gong and destroy traditional Chinese culture. 

“The CCP has spent nearly 25 years trying to eradicate and demonize Falun Gong and even longer to destroy China’s traditional culture,” says Browde, adding, “All these efforts can be unraveled by a Shen Yun performance that showcases authentic Chinese culture, world-class artistry by talented Falun Gong practitioners, and storylines about the CCP’s deadly religious persecution.” 

He further adds, “The CCP cannot abide having its crimes exposed or its lies about Falun Gong undermined, so it is responding with an unprecedented campaign of economic coercion, fake emails, online disinformation, and even physical violence.”

Shen Yun, which is based in New York, aims not only to entertain with its immersive, visually-striking performances that showcase traditional Chinese culture and arts prior to the ravages of communism. 

The performing arts group, which currently has eight equally-sized troupes that tour and perform around the globe simultaneously, also educate audiences on important social and political issues taking place in China today — providing a unique perspective on the human spirit and the importance of not taking certain freedoms for granted. 

Strategic oppression

The 17-page brief draws on existing documentation, first-hand accounts by Shen Yun performers, Chinese government documents, news reports, and U.S. government reports. It provides the first analysis of its kind of the scope, scale, and tactics of this global CCP campaign of artistic censorship. The brief also examines its impact, democratic countries’ responses, and offers recommendations for further action by the U.S. government.

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Furthermore, the report outlines the various tactics deployed by the CCP regime to cripple Shen Yun and coerce authorities from backing the performing arts troupe. These include threatening theaters and government officials with economic reprisals, sabotaging vehicles carrying Shen Yun performers, imprisoning relatives of performers in China, and organizing protests outside performance venues. 

Another key strategy used by the CCP has been spreading disinformation and propaganda against Shen Yun and Falun Gong to undermine support among theater managers, local officials, and potential audience members, the report highlights. 

The U.S., being the base for Shen Yun and hosting numerous performances each year, has been a prime target of this campaign, the report notes. One instance saw the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrest two Chinese men in May 2023 who attempted to bribe a U.S. federal official to “topple” Shen Yun — marking one of the most audacious schemes by the CCP on U.S. soil. 

But despite these aggressive tactics, Shen Yun has expanded dramatically since 2007 — performing in over 150 cities across five continents during the 2023 season. The group’s success is largely attributed to the resilience of theater managers, owners, and government officials who have stood up against the CCP’s threats. There have been 43 incidents of such principled pushback in 19 countries, including in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, the report notes.