As U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in South Korea on Oct. 30, Washington-based Freedom House and human rights advocates were urging him to confront Beijing’s campaign of transnational repression.
Sarah Cook, former research director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan affairs at Freedom House, said Trump must make “the immediate end of transnational suppression targeting Americans on U.S. soil” his top agenda item with Xi, calling it “a test of America’s ability to defend its sovereignty.”
“Trade and tariffs matter,” Cook said, “but Trump cannot miss this chance to send a clear signal: Beijing must stop exercising extraterritorial control over U.S. citizens.” She warned that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) security agencies have conducted operations on U.S. soil that amount to declaring “America powerless to defend itself”—undermining U.S. deterrence in Asia and its credibility with allies such as Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan.
Evidence mounts of CCP operations inside the US
Federal indictments in recent years have revealed a growing pattern of CCP-directed activity in the United States. In 2024, California community leader Chen Jun and his bodyguard Lin Feng were sentenced to 20 and 16 months in prison for bribing an undercover FBI agent and attempting to strip tax-exempt status from Shen Yun Performing Arts, a U.S.-based group affiliated with Falun Gong.
Prosecutors said Chen told the agent on tape, “The goal of the bribe is to help the CCP destroy Falun Gong.”
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In May 2025, Chinese national Cui Guanghai and British national John Miller were indicted for stalking and harassing Chinese artists critical of Xi while also attempting to export U.S. military technology. Other sources have documented online threats targeting Trump administration officials and phishing attacks impersonating members of Congress.
Leaked intelligence suggests some of these activities were personally directed by Xi Jinping. Former Peking University law professor Yuan Hongbing told The Epoch Times that Xi ordered an escalation of “transnational propaganda and legal warfare” against Falun Gong in 2022. A photo cited in a U.S. Justice Department complaint shows Xi shaking hands with Chen Jun—who, according to Cook, has met with Xi at least three times in the past decade.
Cook urged Trump to “bring that photo to the table,” tell Xi directly that the U.S. has evidence of CCP operations on its soil, and warn that “further conspiracies will have consequences.” She said doing so would not be a bargaining tactic, but “a demonstration of peace through strength.”
Calls to raise Falun Gong persecution at APEC
On Oct. 30, the Falun Dafa Information Center called on President Trump to raise two urgent issues with Xi Jinping: the release of Falun Gong practitioners with immediate family members living in the U.S., and an end to the CCP’s harassment and disinformation campaigns targeting the community in America.
The statement noted that Falun Gong practitioners continue to face imprisonment, torture, and organ harvesting in China, despite 26 years of international condemnation. The spiritual practice, founded in 1992 and centered on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, once counted an estimated 70–100 million adherents in China before the CCP banned it in 1999.
Freedom House has repeatedly identified China as “the world’s worst perpetrator of transnational repression,” with Beijing exporting its system of surveillance, intimidation, and propaganda abroad.
At the China Forum in Washington on October 28, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback described Falun Gong’s persecution as “the most severe of any group.”
“The CCP has declared war on faith—a war they are destined to lose,” Brownback said. He recounted the regime’s campaign of imprisonment, torture, and forced organ harvesting, calling it “evil unprecedented on this planet.”
Citing reports from Minghui.org, he said at least 5,000 practitioners have died under persecution, though the real number is far higher. In August 2025, Daqing resident Zhang Fengxia died in custody just seven days after being detained; in October, Liaoning resident Men Yulin died four days after his release in a confused mental state; Shanxi practitioner Wang Shimin was tortured until fully paralyzed and remains bedridden.
Brownback recalled one of the most horrific cases: “In October 2000, Luo Gan, then head of the CCP’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, personally visited the Masanjia Labor Camp, where 18 female Falun Gong practitioners were stripped naked and thrown into a men’s cell. Their logic was simple: if you can’t control them, destroy them.”
“The CCP has killed more of its own citizens than any regime in human history,” he said. “They are committing genocide not only against Falun Gong, but also against Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur Muslims.”
Brownback said communism views belief itself as a threat to survival. “For the United States, religious freedom is a founding principle—it must be treated as a national security issue.”
He is currently writing The CCP’s War on Faith (to be published in 2026). Having led U.S. sanctions on Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo, Brownback was later blacklisted by Beijing—an honor he calls “the proudest achievement of my public service career.”
A call for US action
Brownback urged the White House to meet with Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi and publicly affirm: “Falun Gong practitioners deserve religious freedom—and they deserve it now.” He said the U.S. must also speak out for Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Christians facing persecution in China.
Aditya Yangi, chair of the International Commission on Human Rights and Religious Freedom (ICHRRF), called on Washington to make “countering CCP transnational repression and imperial expansion” a top priority. He said the CCP continues to monitor Falun Gong practitioners worldwide, threaten their families in China, and even target Shen Yun performers—such as principal dancer Wang Xuan, whose mother Liu Aihua was sentenced to four years in prison solely because of her son’s affiliation with the troupe.
Yangi also exposed the CCP’s “secret police station” in New York, where Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping were arrested by the FBI in 2024 for operating on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security. The pair had been directed by the “610 Office” and the United Front Work Department to harass Falun Gong events, collect personal data, and publish smear articles in local Chinese-language newspapers.
He accused the CCP of waging “legal, psychological, and information warfare” against the U.S., using mainstream media and judicial systems as weapons. “Since March 2024, The New York Times has run 12 hit pieces against Falun Gong and Shen Yun, quoting sources linked to pro-Beijing outlets or institutions,” Yangi warned. “This is no longer a media issue—it’s a national security issue.”
He urged Washington to identify CCP operatives, distinguish them from ordinary Chinese citizens, and adopt comprehensive countermeasures through diplomatic and geo-economic means.
