By Cao Ming, Vision Times
ANNANDALE, Virginia — As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, community leaders from across Virginia gathered on July 18 to discuss what they described as one of the country’s growing challenges: the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) expanding efforts to influence and stifle American institutions while suppressing freedom of speech beyond China’s borders.
Hosted by the Asian Community Service Center (ACSC) at the George Mason Library, the forum brought together local officials, community leaders, China experts, and Falun Gong practitioners to discuss the CCP’s influence operations, transnational repression, and the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong. Participants viewed excerpts from Dr. Tianliang Zhang’s documentary China’s Stealth Invasion (《偷襲美國》) and Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun before taking part in a panel discussion.
Resisting the CCP
Founded in 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts is a New York-based performing company dedicated to reviving traditional Chinese culture and art through classical Chinese dance and music. Many of Shen Yun’s performers and staff are practitioners of Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline also known as Falun Dafa. Rooted in the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, the faith was immensely popular in China prior to being banned and subject to severe persecution by the CCP starting in 1999. Because of this, Shen Yun is not currently able to perform in mainland China.
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Freelance writer Terri Wu said the CCP’s campaign of transnational repression extends far beyond China by increasingly targeting Falun Gong practitioners overseas. “We must deter this kind of long-arm jurisdiction that extends beyond China’s borders. This is what we mean by transnational repression,” Wu said, adding, “It is completely unacceptable. Falun Gong practitioners are on the front lines of resisting the CCP’s hideous campaign of transnational repression.”
Wu said directives targeting Shen Yun stem from the highest levels of the CCP and have included information warfare, media campaigns, legal harassment, the use of overseas agents, and bomb threats.
‘Using our own freedom against our freedom’
Among the featured speakers was China affairs analyst Bing He, who argued that Beijing’s influence campaign is driven by more than traditional geopolitical competition seeking to gain an upper hand in trade and politics. “If the CCP wants to prove that its political system is superior, it must also make America appear weaker,” He said. “Propaganda alone isn’t enough. It must also accelerate America’s decline.”
He said Beijing seeks to amplify political polarization through cyber operations, disinformation, and influence campaigns, not necessarily to favor one political party over another, but to undermine public confidence in democratic institutions. “The CCP doesn’t necessarily care who wins,” He said, adding, “Every time America appears more divided, the CCP gains a propaganda victory at home.”
He also argued that transnational repression follows the same logic, with overseas dissidents becoming immediate targets while democratic institutions themselves remain the broader objective. “This is not just an attack on dissidents,” He said, adding, “It is an attempt to weaken the freedoms that protect all Americans. In short, it is using our own freedom against our freedom. The dissidents are the immediate target. American democracy is the long-term target.”
He also cited several examples that he said illustrate Beijing’s broader influence strategy, including criminal cases involving former New York gubernatorial aide Linda Sun and former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang, as well as Chinese state media broadcasts carried by a Virginia radio station and financial ties between Chinese entities and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
“The existence of a free and prosperous democratic society like the United States challenges the CCP’s claim that authoritarian rule is superior,” He said, adding, “Understanding the CCP is the first step toward protecting our democracy.”
Harrowing accounts of persecution
The forum also highlighted the human cost of the CCP’s persecution against Falun Gong, which officially began on July 20, 1999. After seeing its rapid rise in popularity as a threat to its authoritarian regime, the CCP, spearheaded by then-leader Jiang Zemin, launched a brutal campaign to eradicate the practice and jail its adherents. Since then, thousands of practitioners have perished at the hands of Chinese police, with many today still undergoing routine monitoring, arbitrary travel bans, and arrests.
Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Gui, who lives in the Washington metropolitan area, described how her mother, Wang Youmei, was among more than a dozen practitioners recently arrested during coordinated police raids in Wuhan. “My mother’s case is not an isolated one,” Zhou said, adding, “On June 10, 2026, another Falun Gong practitioner from Wuhan, 63-year-old retired civil servant Hu Shangxiu, was taken from her home by police and died within 24 hours of her arrest.”
Former detainee Ma Chunling, who was imprisoned at the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp, displayed plastic flowers and jackets that she said prisoners were forced to manufacture under coercive labor conditions before being exported overseas, including to the United States and Europe. Masanjia has long been associated with horrifying allegations of forced labor, torture, and the abuse of prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners and other minority groups.
Speakers also urged attendees to support the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act (S.4009), legislation that would impose sanctions on individuals involved in forced organ harvesting and related human rights abuses. The legislation follows years of investigation into prisoners of conscience in China, including large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners and other ethnic minorities such as Tibetans and Uyghur Muslims, who have been targeted and killed for their organs.
Independent investigations by former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour, international human rights lawyer David Matas, and the independent China Tribunal concluded that forced organ harvesting has occurred on a significant scale, with Falun Gong practitioners among the principal victims.
Community leaders call for greater awareness
Among those attending the forum was Katie Gorka, chairwoman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee. “I think it has to be brought to people’s attention. It has to be exposed,” Gorka said. “Most people don’t know about this. It was very compelling today to hear about this girl who’s mother is in prison. These stories are really important because it brings the reality home to people.”
Vietnamese-American community leader Hoang Vi Kha also stressed the importance of educating younger generations about the dangers of communism. “The CCP has built an entire system to work against humanity,” he said. “What we have is America, the beacon of freedom. We have to use what we have and our own experiences to develop them into tools for our generation.”
Organizers said they hope to hold additional forums bringing together leaders from different communities to increase public awareness of the CCP’s influence operations and transnational repression. A second event is planned for July 26, where local candidates from both major political parties will meet with community members to further discuss their concerns and recommendations.
