I spent more than 11 years of my life in Chinese prisons because of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong. I eventually escaped China and made it to the United States, but now the CCP has followed me here with a massive transnational repression campaign targeting my community. Ahead of CCP leader Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the U.S., I want to warn you so you don’t fall for the CCP’s influence efforts.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a Buddhist-based practice involving slow-moving qigong exercises, meditation, and a focus on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. Before taking up the practice, I was frequently ill and even suffered from tuberculosis. Through practicing, I have come to understand the meaning of life and have gained physical health and inner peace.
Countless people had a similar experience in China. After its public introduction in 1992, Falun Gong spread across the country. By the late 1990s, the CCP estimated that between 70 and 100 million people were practicing, which outnumbered members of the CCP. Then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin viewed Falun Gong’s popularity as a threat and launched the persecution in 1999.
In October 1999, I went to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to hold up a banner protesting the persecution. As a result, I was sentenced to 18 months in prison. While at Beijing Women’s Prison, I endured forced brainwashing and hard labor. I worked during the day and endured “punishment sitting” at night, which meant sitting on a tiny stool for long hours.
After my release from prison in 2001, I wrote an article detailing my experiences to expose the persecution. It was published on the overseas Minghui website. As a result, I was placed on a public security wanted list, forced into homelessness to avoid arrest, and imprisoned again in 2002. This time I was sentenced to 11 years and subjected to even more severe persecution, including forced feeding after going on a hunger strike.
In 1999, when I was first sentenced, my son was only 18 months old and went to live with my parents. But since my parents also practiced Falun Gong, they were eventually sent to brainwashing centers too. After I was forced into homelessness in 2001, I had no choice but to leave my son with a female friend to raise. I later heard that, after being separated from me, my son cried for three days straight. Over a year later, he started calling my friend “mom.” When my mother visited him, he no longer recognized her, which saddened her deeply. Eventually, my son was sent back to my parents’ home, and he grieved again over leaving his foster mother.
I was finally released in 2012, and in 2013 my family and I fled to the United States to escape persecution. Thanks to the kindness of the American people and the U.S. government, we obtained green cards and later became U.S. citizens.
Back in China, my son had been bullied because of our family’s situation and his grades plummeted. But after coming to the United States, he blossomed into a happy boy who excelled academically and ranked among the top students in his class. In 2020, to repay the U.S. government and the American people for supporting our family, he joined the U.S. Army Reserve.
Despite 27 years of persecution, the CCP has not managed to eradicate Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S. have spoken out about the CCP’s human rights abuses, including forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience.
The CCP doesn’t like the international attention, and it’s now trying to turn American public opinion and the U.S. government against Falun Gong.
According to The Epoch Times, based on whistleblower accounts, in 2022 Xi held a secret meeting ordering a new strategy to “eradicate” Falun Gong in the U.S. The strategy relies on lawfare and spreading disinformation via American social media and media outlets.
The CCP is especially targeting Shen Yun Performing Arts, an American company founded by Falun Gong practitioners. The Classical Chinese dance company’s mission is to revive China’s authentic culture — China before communism. Performances also raise awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong. In addition to lawsuits and disinformation, the CCP is also trying to disrupt performances. According to Shen Yun, in the past two years they’ve faced more than 150 violent threats including bomb threats and mass shooting threats. All the threats turned out to be hoaxes.
To learn more about the CCP’s war against Shen Yun, check out the recently released documentary “Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun.”
According to leaked notes, there are two things the Chinese regime is especially worried about: 1) international attention on forced organ harvesting in China, and 2) the U.S. imposing human rights sanctions on the perpetrators. There’s a bill in Congress that would do both: The Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Act. I hope our U.S. senators from Minnesota will support this human rights legislation.
If you’re reading this, please tell your friends and family about the CCP’s transnational repression campaign against Falun Gong and Shen Yun. After all, if the CCP can successfully turn American public opinion against one of the most persecuted groups in China, then it will use this strategy as a playbook to silence other voices in the West.
Tonia Chu lives in Minnesota and works on volunteer projects in her free time to raise awareness about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong.
Tonia Chu
Tonia Chu lives in Minnesota and works on volunteer projects in her free time to raise awareness about the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong.
