(Minghui.org) The Diplomat published an article on February 24, 2025, highlighting China’s suppression of overseas dissidents, especially Falun Gong practitioners. “The Chinese Communist Party has been working to ‘suppress Falun Gong’s momentum’ around the world – including in the United States,” wrote Tasnim Nazeer in the article, “Leaked CCP Files Expose Global Crackdown on Dissent” by Tasnim Nazeer.
Leaked information from high-ranking whistleblowers revealed the large-scale, organized suppression of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that extended overseas, including to the United States. In particular, the CCP has weaponized overseas media and engaged lawfare to target organizations related to Falun Gong. Practitioners in China have been persecuted by the CCP for many years, including the atrocity of forced organ harvesting.
“At the center of these revelations are leaked official documents and insider accounts of a high-level CCP meeting of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee in 2022, attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to the leaked documents and insider accounts, Xi voiced frustration over the CCP’s failure to neutralize Falun Gong’s overseas activities,” reported the article. “He reportedly instructed officials to ramp up efforts to ‘completely, and on an international scale, suppress Falun Gong’s momentum.’ This directive placed the Ministry of State Security in charge of executing this transnational crackdown.”
Yuan Hongbing, a former Beijing University law professor and an expert on CCP strategies, supported these findings with insights from two sources inside the CCP. One source was from people with a conscience in the CCP system, and another source was from members of the CCP’s Red Second Generation Families. Some of these Red Second Generation Families are very dissatisfied with Xi Jinping, and even hate him, he explained.
“The leaked information reveals two primary tactics in this campaign: influencing global public opinion, and leveraging legal warfare. The goal? Silencing Falun Gong practitioners, discrediting their organizations, and stamping out their advocacy internationally,” reported the article in The Diplomat.
According to Yuan, the CCP mainly relies on bribing some of the key figures in the media with money such as editors-in-chief, reporters, high profile journalists, etc. “To infiltrate the overseas media, the CCP set aside an amount of money called the Overseas United Front funds. This money is specifically used to pay key people in various places overseas,” Yuan said. “Some of the media in our free democratic societies have been reduced to a tool of the CCP tyranny for smearing, attacking, and suppressing Falun Gong.”
Another tool is lawfare. Because of its vast financial resources, the CCP effectively silences critics through legal tactics. This has helped the CCP’s manipulation to extend far beyond its own borders, using every available channel to influence perceptions and policy.
A 2021 Freedom House report found that, “China conducts the most sophisticated, global, and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression in the world.” The tactics range from physically assaulting dissidents to conducting espionage and harassment campaigns. “Its targets include not only Falun Gong practitioners but members of ‘sensitive’ ethnic groups such as Uyghurs or Tibetans, and even former CCP officials now living abroad,” the article said.
A “Snapshot” issued by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security in early February alleged that, “cases of CCP-related espionage and acts of transnational repression throughout the U.S. have expanded rapidly.” The document cited dozens of cases in the past two years in which different people were indicted for acting on the CCP’s behalf to influence political positions, run undisclosed “overseas police stations,” and spy on U.S.-based dissidents.
Wendy Rogers, chair of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China’s International Advisory Board, said the medical community has yet to address these abuses. “The global medical community has failed to act to prevent forced organ harvesting because many of its members have taken Chinese assurances at face value. Western doctors assume that the ethical norms that govern organ donation in the West apply in China,” she said, and she urged medical institutions to cut ties with their Chinese counterparts unless there is full transparency regarding organ procurement.
Legislative efforts such as the U.S. “Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act” can help improve the situation. The Diplomat stated, “The bill would mandate that forced organ harvesting be included as a topic in the State Department’s annual human rights reports on foreign countries, while also providing for sanctions on ‘foreign individuals that fund, sponsor, or otherwise facilitate forced organ harvesting or trafficking in persons for purposes of removal of organs.’”
Rogers said, “The ‘Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act’ is a great initiative in terms of preventing U.S. citizens from engaging in transplant tourism. Other states are considering similar legislation, which is a positive move.” She said it’s necessary for governments to inform themselves and push for action through diplomatic channels and international bodies.
“As the world grapples with the revelations from these leaked documents, one thing is clear: the CCP’s efforts to silence dissent extend far beyond China’s borders, posing a serious threat to freedom, human rights, and the integrity of democratic societies worldwide,” the article concluded.