The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) transnational repression is not merely an evil hand reaching across the ocean to control Chinese communities in America. Instead, it is part of a broader, calculated campaign aimed at dismantling free societies worldwide.
At the heart of this campaign is the United States, the leader of the free world. The CCP’s ambition is nothing less than an all-out war against open societies.
Historically, the CCP has viewed the United States as its primary ideological enemy and greatest systemic threat. After the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Eastern European socialism, the CCP began studying how to wage “unrestricted warfare” against the free world. This all comes down to the CCP’s inherent opposition to freedom and humanity.
Since entering the 21st century, communist China has exploited Western optimism about its so-called political reform to gain entry into the World Trade Organization. Following this, it rapidly industrialized. After Xi Jinping came to power, the CCP began leveraging its newfound economic strength to openly challenge the U.S.-led global economic and security order maintained by the Western world.
If the CCP’s economic and military aggression, particularly in the Western Pacific, is its primary battlefield against the West, then its strategy of infiltration, division, sabotage, and subversion within Western societies represents the second front—a covert war behind enemy lines.
This strategy mirrors the CCP’s tactics during the Chinese Civil War (1945–1949). While fighting the Nationalist army on the front lines, the CCP also stirred up unrest in government-controlled areas to undermine the social foundation from within.
The CCP’s Long Arm Into Mainstream America
On June 13, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform officially launched an investigation into millionaire Neville Roy Singham, alleging that he is the main financial backer of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL).The committee has requested that he disclose financial records involving affiliated groups such as The People’s Forum and ANSWER Coalition. These organizations aggressively promote the CCP’s talking points and anti-American and anti-Israel agendas.
The report identified an organization called Shut It Down for Palestine, or SID4P, which incited mass disruptions—from blocking roads and surrounding airports to fueling anti-Semitic rhetoric. Singham was identified as the group’s funder.
Even more striking is the fact that this tech mogul has lived in Shanghai for years.
In 2021, Chinese media reported that Singham funded a collaboration between East China Normal University and a pro-CCP media company. Photos from the media company’s office showed a portrait of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and a banner reading, “Always Follow the Party.”
Singham also founded Dongsheng News, a foreign-language outlet that promotes pro-CCP messaging. “Dongsheng” literally means “the East rises”—a symbolic expression of Beijing’s ambitions.
On Sept. 15, 2025, after months of investigation, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requested that the Treasury Department assess possible sanctions against Singham, including asset freezes or seizures.
Manipulating US Media
Shen Yun is a world-renowned Chinese performing arts company, especially celebrated in free Western societies. Since its founding in 2006, it has toured internationally, performing hundreds of shows each year. Many audience members leave with a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture, untouched by CCP ideology, as well as of the ongoing human rights abuses occurring under China’s authoritarian regime.
In 2024, The New York Times published a series of articles that made numerous biased and one-sided accusations against Shen Yun. The articles relied heavily on selective interviews and slanted, or even groundless, narratives. It seemed as if the NY Times reporters deliberately sought out disgruntled former performers with personal grievances. This one-sided reporting violates basic journalistic standards of fairness and echoes the CCP’s long-standing smear tactics.
So what could have prompted a long-established newspaper to publish such questionable reports?
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline and meditation practice with moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It rapidly gained popularity in China during the 1990s, and by the end of the decade, between 70 million and 100 million people took up the practice.
In July 1999, the CCP, led by the now-deceased Jiang Zemin, viewed Falun Gong’s increasing popularity as a threat to its authority and initiated a severe persecution campaign aimed at eradicating the spiritual discipline. Since then, millions of people have been subjected to arbitrary arrest, torture, forced labor, and forced organ harvesting. The CCP has also used its state-controlled media and influence over the foreign press to bolster the persecution.
Xi’s directive echoes Jiang’s order to attack Falun Gong practitioners: “Ruin their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically.” However, the difference now is that Xi has expanded this abuse beyond China’s borders—a strategy called transnational repression.
In August 2001, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., then publisher of the New York Times, visited China and met with Jiang. Following the meeting, the newspaper’s coverage of the CCP’s abuses against Falun Gong noticeably declined.
Between 2009 and 2023, the NY Times published hundreds of reports on the human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang, according to a 2024 report by the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC). But how many articles were published about Falun Gong? Only seven. Even worse, many of those articles repeated false narratives from the CCP’s state media.
“We must not underestimate the impact of the Times’ distorted reporting,” Levi Browde, executive director of the FDIC, said in a statement. “Its irresponsible treatment of Falun Gong practitioners as ‘unworthy victims’ has robbed innocent people suffering brutal violations of international support, undoubtedly resulting in greater suffering across China.”
Throughout Shen Yun’s global tours over the years, Chinese embassies and consulates have routinely pressured theaters and local governments to cancel performances. Some venues gave in to the pressure, but many stood their ground.
Bomb threats targeting Shen Yun have become increasingly frequent over the past two years, including one received at a theater in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2024; another targeting the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in February 2025; and one at Pomona College’s theater in Southern California in March 2025.
A 2024 FDIC report revealed that since 2007, there have been more than 130 incidents of interference or sabotage against Shen Yun across 38 countries.
All of this reveals the vast scope of the CCP’s global crimes! Hopefully, the international community can recognize the CCP as a significant threat to global peace and human rights.
In my view, Shen Yun’s relentless commitment to its mission—despite adversity—is one of the most effective ways to counter the CCP’s campaign of transnational repression. And that’s precisely what makes the regime fear it most.
