Chinese Diplomats Tried to Bar Falun Gong from Irish Parade; Man Jailed in China for Parents’ Faith

Dear Reader,

This month brings fresh evidence of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) use of diplomacy as an instrument of transnational repression. The Irish Times reported last week that the Chinese Embassy in Dublin had emailed a local Irish city council urging it to exclude the Falun Gong community from a St. Patrick’s Day parade in March. The embassy’s request, as usual, rested on the Party’s false and demonizing narratives about Falun Gong. The Galway City Council rebuffed the censorship attempt, writing that “the group had completed the standard application and been approved under the parade’s established procedures, and would march.”

Over the past two decades, the same pattern has often repeated itself. Each time, I cannot help thinking that Falun Gong has quietly become a test case for the world’s democracies. Whenever a letter from a Chinese diplomatic mission arrives at a city council, a theater, or an event host, that institution is being challenged as to whether it can uphold basic freedoms or will surrender to a totalitarian regime. Each time such a request is denied, as it was in Galway, the incident stands as a small but real victory for freedom and democracy over propaganda and repression.

Also in this issue:

• A court in Dashiqiao City, Liaoning Province, sentenced nine residents to prison terms of up to nine years. Eight are Falun Gong practitioners, among them a 71-year-old man now blind and unable to walk. The ninth, his son, does not practice and was reportedly sentenced solely because of his family ties.

• Falun Gong practitioners from eleven Midwestern states rallied outside the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, drawing letters of support from five U.S. representatives across both parties.

• As Xi Jinping prepares to visit the United States this month, we revisit how Chinese consulates paid and mobilized pro-Beijing crowds to obstruct Falun Gong appeals during his 2023 trip to San Francisco.

​Finally, with Xi’s U.S. visit approaching, we’re re-sharing a documentary that examines how the CCP’s long arm reaches well beyond China’s borders to target Falun Gong.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

Chinese Diplomats in Ireland Tried to Censor Falun Gong’s Participation in a Local Parade

What’s new?

On Sept. 2, The Irish Times published diplomatic correspondence, obtained under Ireland’s Freedom of Information Act, showing that the Chinese Embassy in Dublin lobbied Galway City Council earlier this year to exclude Falun Gong practitioners from the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. The request was denied, and practitioners marched on March 17—the Irish Falun Dafa Association’s 15^th year in the parade.

Echoing Beijing’s false and demonizing characterizations of Falun Gong and citing supposed “unease” within the local Chinese community, the embassy’s message claimed that the group’s participation would be inappropriate at a public celebration meant to honor Irish culture. On receiving the letter, Galway officials consulted the local gardaí, who raised no security concerns, and reviewed material from Amnesty International documenting the persecution of Falun Gong in China. Derek Pender, the council’s director of services, then wrote back to the embassy denying the request: the group had completed the standard application and been approved under the parade’s established procedures, and would march.

“What The Irish Times reported illustrates how Beijing tries to make an act of transnational censorship look like something else—such as a petition from a local Chinese community,” said Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC). “But in essence, it is an attempt to undermine another country’s sovereignty by enforcing the CCP’s domestic persecution policy and distorted narratives on foreign soil. We commend Galway City Council for holding to its own rules and refusing to yield to Beijing’s pressure.”

Why does it matter?

The incident illustrates how the Beijing’s actions directly try to undermine freedom of religion and expression in other countries.

Nor is Ireland the only place where such efforts have surfaced this year. In January, the Chinese Embassy in Paris emailed a cinema in La Baule-Escoublac, France, hours before a scheduled screening of State Organs, a documentary on the state-run forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience in China. The embassy demanded not only that the screening be canceled, but also that the cinema renounce future cooperation with the organizers. The cinema refused and the screening went ahead under armed guard.

In April, Global News reported that Chinese consular officials met privately with a staff member of Vancouver Civic Theatres, the city-owned operator of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, in an unsuccessful attempt to stop upcoming Shen Yun performances that include one or two pieces artistically depicting the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

All of these incidents appear to breach Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which obliges diplomats to respect the laws of the receiving state and refrain from interference in its internal affairs. Beyond the local venues’ immediate response to the pressure, democratic governments should consider demarches or other diplomatic sanctions to express their dismay at such blatant violations of international norms.

What else do you need to know?

These recent incidents are part of a long-term trend. An FDIC report published in 2024 documented the most aggressive global campaign of Beijing-driven artistic censorship on record, focused on Shen Yun Performing Arts. Primary tactics deployed through diplomatic actors include PRC representatives threatening theaters and government officials with economic reprisals and spreading disinformation. At the time of publication, more than 130 incidents of interference by Chinese officials or their proxies targeting Shen Yun had been documented across 38 countries in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Screenshot of the header of the email from the cultural service of the Chinese Embassy in Paris to the Gulf Stream cinema (Coeur de Jade Blanc association)

Mass Sentencing in Liaoning for Falun Gong, Including a Non-Practitioner Convicted Over Family Ties

On Aug. 11, the Zhanqian District Court in Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, sentenced nine residents of Dashiqiao City to prison terms ranging from six months to nine years. Eight were convicted for practicing Falun Gong. The ninth, Zhang Bo, does not practice—he reportedly received a fifteen-month term solely for being the son of two of the practitioners. Minghui, Weiquanwang, and Bitter Winter each reported on the case in late August.

The heaviest sentences went to Zhang Bo’s parents. His father, Zhang Yuzhen, a 71-year-old resident of Dongzhi Village, received nine years and a 50,000-yuan fine; his mother, Gong Suyan, 72, received eight years and six months and a fine of the same amount.

Zhang Yuzhen’s health collapsed during pre-trial detention. By July, he had developed severe hypertension, heart disease, and stroke symptoms, and was hospitalized under guard. When his lawyer next saw him, he was blind in both eyes, unable to walk, and unable to sit upright in a wheelchair without three officers holding him in place. He was wheeled into the courtroom in that condition. Requests for medical bail were disregarded both before and after the hearing.

The nine were arrested en masse on Nov. 25, 2025, following roughly six months of mobile-phone surveillance by the Dashiqiao City Public Security Bureau. Three of the defendants had previously served forced labor terms for their faith dating back as far as 2001. According to reports, the case was referred to and directed by the Liaoning Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee.

Chicago: Rally Outside Chinese Consulate Receives Public Support

On August 29, practitioners from eleven Midwestern states held a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, calling for an end to the 27-year persecution of Falun Gong. They read letters of support from elected officials, including Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), Rep. Thomas Tiffany (R-WI), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO), Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), and Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), who backed practitioners and condemned the Chinese regime’s transnational repression.

“The CCP exports hatred and carries out transnational repression. This endangers the whole world,” said Ms. Xu, a Michigan practitioner. She hopes more people will learn about the transnational repression underway and help end the persecution.

Many passersby signed the petition calling for an end to the persecution after hearing about the atrocities practitioners face, some learning of the persecution for the first time. Some were also attracted by the tranquil exercises and music. “Just watching them do the exercises, I can feel that sense of peace,” said passerby Donnie Tae.

Have you read this? Chinese Consulate-Backed Group Targets Falun Gong Appeal During APEC Summit in San Francisco

Falun Gong appeal during APEC in downtown San Francisco was blocked for most of the afternoon by CCP supporters on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.

As Xi Jinping prepares for his visit to the United States this month, it is worth revisiting what unfolded during his last trip. From Nov. 15–17, 2023, an estimated 100–200 Falun Gong practitioners held peaceful appeals across San Francisco, coinciding with Xi’s meeting with President Biden at the APEC summit.

Their banners—carrying messages such as “Stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China,” “China ≠ Chinese Communist Party,” and “Stop killing Falun Gong practitioners for their organs”—were systematically obstructed, vandalized, and drowned out by pro-Beijing crowds gathered near the Moscone Center and Xi’s hotel on 3rd Street.

According to interviews, NGO documentation, and reporting cited by Newsweek and NTD Television, the Chinese consulates in California and New York paid supporters hundreds of dollars, along with flights, meals, and accommodations, to mobilize thousands and outnumber Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents on the streets.

The pattern traces back further. According to a U.S. court filing, convicted CCP agent Lu Jianwang recruited and bused paid counter-protesters from New York to Washington, D.C., during Xi’s 2015 U.S. visit to confront peaceful Falun Gong demonstrations.

Have you ever wondered how far Beijing will go to silence its critics abroad? For more than two decades, the CCP has run a quiet but expanding campaign to intimidate, discredit, and shut down Falun Gong communities across the United States and around the world. This 20-minute documentary released by the FDIC in 2024 sheds light on the alarming reality of this campaign and lays out why it should concern anyone who cares about free expression on democratic soil.