Falun Gong Group Asks Anand to Raise Issue of Transnational Repression With Chinese Minister

Falun Gong practitioners hold banners in front of the Global Affairs building in Ottawa in protest of the visit by Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi to Canada, on May 28, 2026. The Epoch Times

A group persecuted by Beijing says Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand should use the visit by her Chinese counterpart to request an end to transnational repression in Canada and persecution in China.

The Falun Dafa Association of Canada sent a letter to Anand earlier this week ahead of the arrival of Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi in Ottawa on May 28.

“We write to respectfully urge you to raise Beijing’s transnational repression campaign against Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts in your upcoming meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (May 28–30, 2026), and call for the end of the persecution of Falun Gong in China,” says the letter.

Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual meditation discipline that has been persecuted in China since 1999.

The Falun Dafa Association is the presenter of Shen Yun Performing Arts, a classical Chinese dance and music company that seeks to restore traditional Chinese culture, performing around the world with the tagline, “China Before Communism.” Six Shen Yun performances were cancelled in Toronto earlier this year following a bomb threat hoax, which was linked to an email account based in China. The shows have now been rescheduled for June.

(L-R) Joel Etienne, legal advisor for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada; David Matas, international human rights lawyer; Joel Chipkar, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada; and Kelly Cong and He Lizhi, both Falun Dafa practitioners, at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 28, 2026 The Epoch Times

A similar hoax targeted the Vancouver performances but those were not cancelled and Vancouver police said it traced the threat back to China. The City of Vancouver this year also resisted pressure from the Chinese consulate to cancel Shen Yun.

The Falun Dafa Association says these threats and ongoing pressure tactics are part of a global pattern of repression by Beijing seeking to “cancel Shen Yun and silence Falun Gong.”

The association says these activities are impacting Canadian sovereignty and that foreign-directed activities to suppress lawful expressions are “unacceptable.”

“Raising these concerns directly and on the record would signal to Beijing that Canada recognizes and takes seriously foreign interference and intimidation targeting communities within Canada, and that attempts to suppress lawful cultural and religious expression through coercive means are unacceptable,” says the letter to Anand.

In response to the bomb threats, Global Affairs Canada has said it contacted the RCMP immediately and that an investigation is underway.

“Canada will never tolerate acts of foreign interference or transnational repression against its citizens or those in Canada,” said Anand in a May 8 response to a House of Commons petition requesting measures to protect Falun Gong in Canada.

There are also campaigns, such as LetShenYunPerform.ca, set up by Fans of Shen Yun Canada, to request that Shen Yun perform at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre (NAC). The federally owned and operated venue has hosted Shen Yun for 18 years, but refused to host the show this year, citing commercial reasons. The decision comes amid increased contact between the Chinese Embassy and NAC leadership in recent years, according to records obtained through access to information requests. The NAC did not return a request for comment.

Family Members Jailed

The Falun Dafa Association held a press conference on Parliament Hill on May 28, and spokesman Joel Chipkar said the group also wants Anand to raise the plight of family members of Canadians who are jailed in China for practising Falun Gong.

Kelly Cong, a Falun Dafa practitioner whose mother was arbitrarily detained in China in February 2023 and sentenced to four years in prison, speaks at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 28, 2026 The Epoch Times

Kelly Cong from Montreal told reporters her 81-year-old mother has been in jail for three years after being arbitrarily detained and given a four-year sentence. “I call on the Canadian government to help stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Also, I call for releasing my mother, releasing all imprisoned practitioners of Falun Gong in China,” she said.

He Lizhi, a Falun Dafa practitioner who was persecuted in China, speaks at a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 28, 2026 The Epoch Times

He Lizhi from Toronto said his brother was sentenced to seven years in jail for having Falun Gong information on his phone.

“We know nothing of his safety or health. That silence is its own form of torture,” said He Lizhi. “My parents are over 80. This cruelty is breaking them. I know these brutalities firsthand. I survived three and a half years of illegal imprisonment in China, and nearly lost my life to torture.”

Falun Gong is a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist traditions and involves meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. The practice rose to popularity in China in the early 1990s due to its reported health benefits, with government statistics showing 70 million to 100 million people were taking part in the practice at the time. However, the popularity of the practice was seen as a threat by the communist regime, and it was targeted for persecution by Beijing starting in 1999, including arbitrary detention, torture, and forced organ harvesting.

International human rights lawyer David Matas, also speaking at the press conference, said the widespread popularity of Falun Gong in the 1990s caused the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to fear for its “ideological supremacy” and launch a suppression campaign.

Commenting on the CCP’s efforts to target Shen Yun, Matas said attempts by Chinese consulates to pressure venues into cancelling performances violate both international treaty obligations and Canadian law. Matas said Ottawa needs to inform Wang Yi of this reality.

Protests

Falun Gong practitioners call for an end to the persecution campaign against their practice in China, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 28, 2026. The Epoch Times

Aside from the letter, Falun Gong practitioners are protesting Wang Yi’s visit this week by holding rallies in front of Parliament Hill and the foreign affairs building.

Other groups persecuted by Beijing, such as Uyghurs from the Xinjiang region, have also organized a protest in front of Parliament Hill.

“Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister, is one of the chief architects, enforcers, and defenders of atrocity crimes committed by the Chinese government — including the ongoing genocide, cultural erasure, and transnational repression targeting Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Hong Kongers,” said Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project. “His visit must not pass without strong protest.”

The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China also sent an open letter to Minister Anand on May 28 to ask that human rights and foreign interference be raised with Wang.

The coalition asked Anand to raise the plight of Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this year, and that of Canadian Uyghur Huseyin Celil, who is jailed for life, and has been denied consular access for two decades.

“We ask you to ensure that the Government of Canada will demand that China commit to no further hostage diplomacy and extraterritorial intimidation and removal of all the punitive sanctioning of Canadians by China if a ’strategic partnership' between Canada and China is to move forward,” says the letter.

The coalition comprises groups such as the Canada Tibet Committee, Canada-Hong Kong Link, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, the Falun Dafa Association of Canada, and the Uyghur Advocacy Rights Projects.

Police MOU

The coalition also raised concerns about the secret memorandum of understanding (MOU) on law enforcement Canada struck with China, asking for transparency and parliamentary scrutiny of the agreement given the track record of repression by Chinese authorities.

Matas said the MOU on law enforcement is “problematic” and “shouldn’t be there,” given the judicial system in China is controlled by the CCP.

“You get charges that are basically politically motivated and the agreement is supposedly based on an assumption that there is criminality in China and there should be cooperation, but in reality what you are seeing is a political system that is operating to go after its enemies and protect its friends, and so Canada should have no part of it,” he said.

Matas also noted that Beijing operated several clandestine police stations on Canadian soil before a Spanish NGO blew the whistle in 2022. He said the Canadian government should be combating Chinese law enforcement encroachment instead of cooperating with it.

Opposition MPs have called for the release of the police MOU and reporters asked Prime Minister Mark Carney about the issue on May 27.

“We don’t make a habit of releasing security documents with other governments for reasons of operational security, that is standard practice for this government, previous governments as well,” he said.

Carney also said he was “looking forward” to the visit of Wang Yi. “I will have a chance to meet with him, it will be a valuable exchange of views, and I appreciate his arrival.”

Wang’s visit to Canada is the first by a Chinese foreign affairs minister since 2016. Anand’s department says the meetings will aim to “advance pragmatic engagement” and work on the implementation of the updated “Canada-China Strategic Partnership.”

The new partnership was struck when Carney visited China in January. Canada and China signed agreements in areas such as law enforcement and energy, and a deal was made to obtain temporary tariff relief on some Canadian agricultural and seafood products in exchange of lifting the 100 percent surtax on an initial 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles.