Louisa Greve, a veteran human rights expert, is warning that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) campaign of harassment against Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun Performing Arts in the United States must be treated not just as a law enforcement issue, but also as a matter of U.S. foreign policy.
“The answer to that is foreign policy,” Greve told The Epoch Times. “It has to be non-negotiable, just like you might have the secretary of state and the president say, do not provide nuclear material to Iran or you'll be cut off from oil sales, whatever it is.”
Greve currently serves as global advocacy director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project and previously spent years at the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy. She said the CCP’s overseas repression has gone on for decades, citing both physical attacks and intimidation campaigns.
A Pattern of Harassment in New York
One example of this is how, in 2008, mobs from pro-Beijing groups in Flushing, Queens, verbally abused and physically assaulted Falun Gong practitioners for weeks. At the time, a leaked phone recording captured then-Chinese Consul General Peng Keyu admitting he had “encouraged” and “supported” the attacks.“Actual street violence is directed at Falun Gong, we know in Queens and all around New York,” Greve said. “Peaceful Falun Gong protesters, or even just people meditating. The gangs come, and there have been a few cases where the police prosecute. But they find it very difficult, and it seems like it was not enough of a deterrent.”
A decade and a half later, a similar pattern surfaced in Chinatown. In April 2023, the FBI arrested two men running an underground “Chinese police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Both had ties to CCP proxy groups tasked with suppressing Falun Gong. Then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), now secretary of state, said at the time the arrests were only the tip of the iceberg.
Earlier this year, the New York-based “Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party,” founded by Falun Gong practitioners, received seven bomb threats via email, with messages threatening shootings, car rammings, and homemade explosives. Some of the emails were traced back to servers in mainland China.
Falun Gong practitioners attend a parade to call for the end of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of the group in China and to support the hundreds of millions who have quit the Chinese Communist Party. Larry Dye/The Epoch Times
Targeting Families to Silence Dissent
Greve also condemned the CCP’s use of collective punishment—targeting family members in China of dissidents abroad.“You have kidnappings of the family members. They kidnapped Rushan Abbas’s sister. It’s intended to keep Rushan silent,” she said.
Rushan Abbas is a Uyghur American activist and advocate for the Uyghur people in what pro-independence activists call East Turkistan, while the CCP refers to it as “Xinjiang,” meaning “new territories” in Chinese, as it was conquered and occupied by China. Abbas’s sister was abducted in China after Abbas spoke out publicly.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based dance company founded by Falun Gong practitioners, has faced similar pressure. In 2023, the CCP sentenced the mother of Shen Yun principal dancer Wang Xuan to four years in prison, partly because of her son’s performances abroad that expose the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and celebrate China’s traditional culture, which the CCP has for decades tried to stamp out.
According to the Falun Dafa Information Center, Beijing attempted to sabotage Shen Yun more than 130 times between 2007 and 2024 across 38 countries. Over the past year, there have been more than 110 incidents recorded. Many of these took place in the United States.
“They recognize the fundamentals of human nature, which is, people care for their family,” Greve said, adding that the CCP uses this as leverage for transnational repression, in addition to direct threats against Shen Yun performers.
An American Civil Rights Issue
Greve said that the intimidation of Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun artists inside the United States should be treated as a civil rights issue.“So it doesn’t matter if you’re a U.S. citizen or maybe you’re an asylum seeker, green card holder, all people in the U.S. need to be protected [for] their civil rights,” she said.
While law enforcement can address local crimes, Greve said, American leaders must recognize the foreign policy dimension and make use of it.
“But what if the perpetrator is a policeman in Beijing, in Urumqi, [China,] American law enforcement can’t put them on trial, put them in prison, so then they throw up their hands,” she said. “The answer to that is foreign policy.”
Greve said that while ultimately the responsibility lies with the State Department and the president, she recommends that American foreign policy tie consequences to the CCP’s campaign of transnational repression.
“If you threaten our people, if you send thugs to beat up Falun Gong people just protesting or handing out information on the streets of New York, then you will not get an invitation to the Shangri-La Security Forum,” she said. “You will have tariffs. So, it’s not only a law enforcement matter; it’s transnational. It needs to be a matter of foreign policy.”
Li Chen contributed to this report.
