FBI Must Combat CCP-Linked Threats Targeting Faith Group on US Soil, Lawmaker Says

Rep. Barry Loudermilk said the FBI must prioritize efforts to counter the CCP’s transnational repression, which threatens core U.S. interests.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) speaks in Nashville, Tenn., on June 18, 2022. Seth Herald/Getty Images

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) recently told The Epoch Times that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) transnational repression of Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts on American soil amounts to a form of terrorism. He said the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies must refocus to confront such threats more effectively.

Loudermilk responded to questions regarding bomb threats linked to CCP efforts to target Shen Yun and Falun Gong in the United States. One incident occurred in February, before Shen Yun was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The center was briefly evacuated, but the performance went on as planned. A second incidence took place in June, during the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary parade in the nation’s capital.

According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, anonymous messages were sent ahead of the parade, falsely claiming that individuals disguised as Falun Gong practitioners planned to carry out bombings and shootings during the event. These messages were reported to law enforcement. While no attacks occurred, the threats appeared intended to intimidate and discredit the group.

“One of the measures [to address this] is rebuilding the FBI to get the FBI refocused on looking at issues of domestic terrorism or international terrorism here on our shores,” Loudermilk said.

“We need to return the FBI to its real job—which is protecting the American people, not being a political arm of one party or the other.”

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was introduced publicly in China in 1992 and surged in popularity. By the end of the decade, government estimates put its practitioners at 70 million to 100 million, exceeding that of the CCP’s membership. The CCP saw this as a threat and in 1999, launched a persecution to eradicate Falun Gong in China.

In 2006, Falun Gong practitioners in New York established Shen Yun Performing Arts to revive traditional Chinese culture and showcase “China before communism.” With annual live audiences exceeding one million worldwide, Shen Yun has become a top target of the CCP’s transnational repression campaign.

One prominent case involved Chen Jun, a well-known Chinese community leader in Los Angeles. Acting under instructions from the Chinese regime, Chen traveled to New York to attempt to bribe an IRS official in an effort to strip Shen Yun of its nonprofit status. Unbeknownst to him, the intermediary was an FBI informant, and Chen was caught in the sting operation. In November 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Another case involved a U.S. citizen who had lived in China for 15 years. After returning to the United States, he posed as an environmentalist and founded a nonprofit organization in New York. He then filed repeated lawsuits against Dragon Springs—the campus housing Shen Yun’s training facilities—on environmental grounds. Courts dismissed all claims due to lack of evidence, and a judge eventually barred him from filing further suits on the same grounds.

According to a letter obtained by The Epoch Times, the CCP’s “North American Anti-Falun Gong Office” has been operating since at least March 2021, coordinating efforts to suppress Falun Gong abroad.

Loudermilk warned that the CCP’s transnational suppression of Falun Gong and Shen Yun within the United States represents a direct threat to core American interests.

“It is definitely a threat,” he said. “We’re working on rebuilding the FBI and the intelligence community to get them refocused.”

He went on to say that lawmakers are now more aware of the threats posed by the CCP within the United States, which has led to a renewed focus on the issue.

Loudermilk told The Epoch Times that Congress is working to expand the executive branch’s authority to counter CCP infiltration more effectively.

“We’ve just done [that]—put a lot more authority within the executive branch to crack down on infiltration by the Communist Party.”

He noted that the CCP’s activities are widespread across American institutions.

“We focused a lot on colleges and institutions, and knowing who is here and what they’re doing,” he said. “We have to bring awareness to our colleges, to our institutions, to the organizations that support the arts.”

He noted that in many cases, Chinese nationals coming to study in the United States are not here solely for academic purposes—they are also advancing the interests of the CCP. A similar pattern, he said, is evident within technology companies.

Li Chen contributed to this report.