(Minghui.org) In an article published February 20, 2025, the Washington Examiner said that after failing to shut down Shen Yun through threats and sabotage, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried another tactic... manipulating public opinion against Shen Yun by leveraging the U.S. media.
Shen Yun’s mission is to showcase 5,000 years of authentic Chinese culture, while the CCP has done the opposite, especially after the Cultural Revolution. The CCP has tried to get theaters around the world to cancel Shen Yun performances by using smear campaigns and bomb threats. After these attempts failed, the CCP worked with the New York Times, which published six articles in six months with talking points in line with the CCP’s propaganda against Shen Yun.
According to the Washington Examiner, the CCP was unable to shut down Shen Yun through suppression, and “has now turned to an even more insidious tactic — leveraging American media outlets such as the New York Times to attack it instead.”
The author calls the CCP’s extended suppression of Shen Yun “America’s problem” because it means that foreign agents have infiltrated the U.S. press to silence dissidents.
The New York Times’s article that criticizes Shen Yun is not just an article, but a sign that the CCP has “manipulated major corporations to avoid criticizing China, and used Western journalists to push its narratives.”
The author talked about how sports, movies, and tech companies have yielded to CCP demands in exchange for profit. U.S. universities have been infiltrated by Confucius Institutes, which spread the CCP’s propaganda. “Now, the CCP is using American media to smear dissidents who sought refuge in the United States, turning our own press against those who fled oppression,” the article said.
Growing up in Iran, the author said he witnessed how the Iranian regime uses psychological warfare and propaganda to silence dissents. “The Iranian regime used state-controlled media to turn citizens against each other and eliminate opposition. Now, I see the CCP employing the same playbook… (to) silence those who expose the truth.”
The author said that if an American media could be weaponized against a performing arts group, “what’s stopping it from using the same tactics against everyday Americans?” He considered it a severe violation of freedom of speech when the CCP can dictate narratives in the U.S. to influence public perception and policy decisions, and said, “then America is no longer governing itself.”
In the end the author stated, “Shen Yun performers came to America because they believed in the promise of liberty. If we allow CCP tactics to infiltrate our media, corporations, and institutions, we are betraying that promise. This matter is bigger than Shen Yun. It is about preserving America’s soul.” He called on the U.S. to act immediately, and enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act to require media executives who push the CCP’s propaganda to register as foreign agents. He also urged the U.S. to scrutinize CCP-owned platforms, and hold corporations that push CCP ideology over American values on U.S. soil accountable.
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Category: News Commentary
