May 2026 Transnational Repression Update

Incidents of transnational repression targeting practitioners of Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts continued throughout May 2026, with at least 16 documented cases spanning the United States, Canada, and Japan. The pattern manifested in May through a new emphasis on impersonation: senders posed as Falun Gong–related organizations, heads of government, and even the Falun Dafa Information Center’s (FDIC) personnel in order to launder threats and seed false-flag narratives.

Physical intimidation

Two incidents of in-person harassment were documented in May.

On May 3 in Santa Monica, California, a Falun Gong practitioner was stalked and photographed at a public information site on the Santa Monica Pier, where she was volunteering to distribute materials about the persecution of Falun Gong in China and assisting individuals who wished to renounce their affiliations with Chinese Communist Party–related organizations. An unidentified man of approximately 50 years of age photographed her for a prolonged period and continued to follow her along the pier. When she confronted him and asked him to delete the photographs, he responded only with an unclear single word before walking away. The same practitioner had experienced a similar incident at the same site on February 15, when she was photographed by another man of apparent Chinese descent.

On May 9 in Manhattan, New York, an individual disrupted a public World Falun Dafa Day celebration at Union Square, charging the stage and damaging lotus flowers and other decorative materials before being subdued by attendees and arrested by responding officers. Witnesses described the attack as deliberately targeting the Falun Gong event rather than a random act, with one observer characterizing it as a hate-motivated attack on religious belief.

A defining feature of May’s activity was the systematic use of impersonation — of Falun Gong-related organizations, public officials, and Falun Gong personnel — to disguise the origin of threatening or defamatory messages.

• Impersonation of Falun Gong organizations against foreign venues. Between May 7 and May 9, an unidentified individual submitted at least four bomb-threat messages through the public inquiry form of the Shinjuku Cultural Center, a municipal venue in Tokyo, Japan. The submissions impersonated the email address of Dragon Springs, the New York campus where Shen Yun’s training facilities are located. One message, signed in the name of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, claimed that explosives had been placed at the Yasukuni Shrine and demanded ten million U.S. dollars. A separate submission on May 9, impersonating Chinese-Canadian writer Sheng Xue (盛雪), threatened detonations at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Ginza, and Haneda Airport unless ¥100 million was paid.

• Impersonation of The Epoch Times. On May 12 and May 13, three near-identical messages were sent from a spoofed Proton Mail address ([email protected]), impersonating The Epoch Times, a media outlet founded by Falun Gong practitioners. The messages targeted Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, Dragon Springs, and the Falun Dafa Association of Canada. Each falsely warned that the CCP had “colluded with insiders” at the institution and that explosives had been planted (or, in the Canadian case, that “a poisoning operation” was imminent), urging the recipient to “immediately notify the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.” The messages exploited the credibility of a Falun Gong–related outlet to trigger law-enforcement responses based on fabricated tips.

• Pre-positioned false-flag narratives. Several messages submitted through the Falun Dafa Information Center’s public contact form did not threaten violence directly but instead predicted that violent crimes would soon be carried out by individuals posing as Falun Gong practitioners. On May 1, a submission impersonating NTD Television — a media outlet founded by Falun Gong practitioners (sender [email protected], IP 154.81.15.198) — claimed that “the glory of 9/11 will be revived” and that attacks “carried out by individuals posing as Falun Gong practitioners” would soon target the White House, Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower, and the Pentagon. On May 15, a submission signed in the name of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te (IP 165.154.112.56) predicted that people “wearing Falun Dafa clothing” would break into homes “in the dead of night to commit murder and robbery — and leave the clothing behind at the scene.” The framing in both messages is pre-emptive and inculpatory, designed to attribute any future violence to Falun Gong practitioners.

• Impersonation of FDIC personnel. On May 15, an unknown sender submitted a bomb-threat message through the contact form of the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, a Virginia-based NGO unrelated to Falun Gong. The submission used the name of FDIC Executive Director Levi Browde and the spoofed address [email protected], claiming that ammonium nitrate explosives had been planted with a remote detonator and demanding ten million dollars within eight hours. The incident represents an outward projection of the false-flag pattern — directing a bomb threat from Falun Gong toward an unrelated American institution.

Bomb and death threats

Direct threats of violence in May targeted Shen Yun performers and their families, the Dragon Springs campus, and a Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson.

• On the evening of May 7, two messages were sent in rapid succession to [email protected] from the address [email protected]. The first threatened that female Shen Yun performers and their female descendants would be abducted and subjected to sexual assault. A second message, sent four minutes later, threatened that descendants of Shen Yun staff would be found “with their throats cut, limbs severed, and organs harvested in bustling, downtown city streets.”

• On May 8, a bomb threat was submitted to the Shinjuku Cultural Center inquiry form impersonating Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, using a spoofed email designed to mimic the Canadian Opera Company. The message claimed remote-controlled bombs had been planted at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto and demanded the cancellation of Shen Yun performances by the following afternoon.

• On May 12, a submission to the FDIC contact form signed in the name of Donald Trump (IP 165.154.110.87) warned that “C4, explosives, and booby traps” had been planted along the route of the May 13 World Falun Dafa Day parade in New York City.

• On May 17, a message signed in the name of Chiang Kai-shek (IP 45.124.27.150) issued a death threat against Zhang Erping, a longtime FDIC spokesperson, and his family: “The whole family is about to be reunited before the King of Hell. It won’t be long.”

• On May 19, two threats targeted Dragon Springs within a single news cycle. The first, submitted in the name of “Li Yun” with a spoofed [email protected] address (IP 165.154.112.34), warned that “a large number of pressure-plate landmines have been planted in the mountains surrounding Longquan Temple.” Hours later, a second submission, signed in the name of Donald Trump (IP 154.81.15.111), claimed explosives had been planted near the Dragon Springs bookstore and performer dormitory and demanded a twenty-million-dollar ransom by 3 p.m. that day.

Taken together, these incidents bring the total number of anonymous death threats to intimidate Falun Gong practitioners and discourage support for Falun Gong and Shen Yun since March 2024 to 282, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center’s incident tracker updated on May 16. Although no physical harm has occurred to date, the scale, repetition, and cross-border nature of these threats underscore a sustained campaign of intimidation. All incidents have been reported to law enforcement authorities and remain under investigation.

Context and continuing pattern

The recurring features of the May incidents — the reuse of IP ranges (154.81.x.x, 165.154.x.x), shared Chinese-language phrasing, and the deliberate use of high-profile names such as Donald Trump, Mark Carney, Anthony Albanese, Lai Ching-te, Chiang Kai-shek, and Sheng Xue as fabricated senders — point to an organized campaign rather than isolated actors.

The impersonation tactics observed in May also extended the campaign beyond direct intimidation: by spoofing the addresses of Dragon Springs, The Epoch Times, NTD, and the Falun Dafa Information Center itself, the senders sought to associate Falun Gong with bomb threats and violent crime in the eyes of foreign venues, U.S. law enforcement, and the public. This pattern operates in parallel with the diplomatic-level defamation by Chinese state representatives documented in earlier months.

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