Falun Gong Representative Testifies in Congress Ahead of Xi Jinping Visit; Beijing Used AI to Profile Overseas Practitioners

Dear Reader,

​Today, Xi Jinping arrives in Washington for a three-day state visit. For our community, his arrival is more than a diplomatic event. It is a critical opportunity to call for an end to persecution in China and transnational repression targeting us here in the United States.

In 2022, according to reporting by The Diplomat, Xi personally ordered China’s security apparatus to escalate its targeting of Falun Gong worldwide, specifically through disinformation and lawfare. Many of us in America have felt the effects firsthand, from death threats to efforts to launder distorted, even false, narratives about us.

That is why we have urged U.S. officials to raise human rights and transnational repression in their meetings with Xi. When a regime encroaches on U.S. citizens’ rights to free expression and belief, staying quiet puts Americans’ own safety and sovereignty at risk.

One day before Xi’s arrival, Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang made that case before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). He urged the Trump administration to raise Falun Gong with Xi, press for the release of practitioners imprisoned for their faith, and confront the transnational repression that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) carries out here at home.

Also in this issue:

• A 74-year-old Falun Gong practitioner in Shaanxi Province died in prison while serving an eight-year sentence; her family was pressured into immediate cremation.

• An Anthropic report reveals that a single China-based operator used its artificial intelligence (AI) tool Claude to build daily intelligence files on Falun Gong practitioners, Shen Yun, and NTD.

• Ahead of the Trump–Xi summit, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, and Tibetans gathered in a briefing that urged religious freedom be put on the summit agenda.

​Finally, we share a short clip from Mr. Zhang’s congressional testimony.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

Falun Gong Spokesperson Testifies at CECC Hearing Ahead of Xi Jinping’s Visit to Washington

What’s new?

On September 22, the CECC held a hearing titled “The Faces of Repression: Prisoners, Families, and Communities Targeted by the CCP.” Erping Zhang, spokesperson for Falun Gong, testified on behalf of the American Falun Gong community.

The hearing came just ahead of Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States. “Today we appeal to Xi Jinping to release women and men of conscience and goodness as a tangible, good-faith expression of goodwill, benevolence, respect and strength,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the CECC.

Mr. Zhang made three points in his testimony. First, eradicating Falun Gong remains a top priority for the CCP. Second, the persecution has followed practitioners to the United States, taking the form of various tactics of transnational repression. Third, its impact reaches far beyond the Falun Gong community.

Mr. Zhang urged the Trump administration to raise Falun Gong during Xi’s visit, including the ongoing persecution in China and transnational repression in the United States, and to call for the release of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. “Such engagement would reinforce the U.S. commitment to human rights, national security, and protection of its citizens,” he said.

He also urged Congress to advance pending legislation on forced organ harvesting and to build on the transnational repression measures already introduced. In particular, he called for future efforts to address foreign-directed litigation against Americans and to ensure that victims have a clear path to remedy.

Why does it matter?

Mr. Zhang’s third point was that the impact of the repression reaches far beyond the Falun Gong community. The persecution of Falun Gong has long served as an incubator for tactics the CCP later turned on Uyghurs and other groups. Those tactics also undermine U.S. sovereignty and national security as Beijing attempts to weaponize the U.S. legal system.

He specifically mentioned John Chen, who was convicted in a U.S. court in 2024 of acting as an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). According to court documents, Chen and his co-defendant attempted to bribe an undercover agent posing as an IRS official to revoke the nonprofit status of Shen Yun Performing Arts, a classical Chinese dance company founded by Falun Gong practitioners. They also surveilled practitioners to lay the groundwork for “potential environmental lawsuits meant to inhibit the growth of the Falun Gong community in Orange County, New York,” where Shen Yun is headquartered. Notably, court filings also included a photo of Chen personally shaking hands with Xi himself.

“This is a clear example of how CCP proxies sought to weaponize American laws and regulations as an instrument of foreign repression against Falun Gong,” Zhang said. “This does not stop with us. The full spectrum of tactics is an emerging playbook that can be pointed at any group the CCP decides is a problem.”

What else do you need to know?

Mr. Zhang thanked Co-Chair Smith for his sustained support, noting that Smith led the effort to pass the first congressional resolution on Falun Gong in 1999. Ranking Member Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) also attended the hearing.

Other witnesses included Pastor Ezra Jin of Beijing Zion Church, released this summer after more than 260 days in Chinese custody; Rushan Abbas of the Campaign for Uyghurs, whose sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, remains imprisoned in Xinjiang; Nelson Wells Sr., father of Nelson Wells Jr., an American imprisoned in China since 2014; and Tim Hunt, brother of Dawn Michelle Hunt, who has also been imprisoned since 2014.

Elderly Woman in Shaanxi Dies in Custody While Serving an Eight-Year Term for Practicing Falun Gong

Ms. Cao Ping, a 74-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, died in custody at Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison in April 2026, two years after she began serving an eight-year sentence for her faith. According to Minghui.org, her family has never been told how she died. In her final phone call from the prison, she suddenly said, “It’s too cruel,” before a guard monitoring the call cut her off.

By the time she was sentenced, Ms. Cao had lost sight in one eye and had impaired vision in the other. Every application for medical release was refused, including two requests filed by her lawyer during her trial and appeal, and repeated requests from her family afterward. When relatives were finally allowed to view her body, they saw extensive bruising on her legs. Prison officials refused to explain her death, told the family to submit any objections in writing, declined to release her remains, and pressed for immediate cremation. Under that pressure, the family eventually agreed.

Ms. Cao was arrested one morning in September 2022 while traveling by car with two other Falun Gong practitioners. One of them, Ms. Du Fengying, died of a stroke in September 2023 while out on bail, after sustained harassment from police and local officials. Of the three practitioners arrested that day, two are now dead.

Anthropic Report: China-Based Operation Used AI to Build Daily Files on Falun Gong Practitioners, Shen Yun and NTD

One person in China, working with an AI chatbot, did work that once took a roomful of analysts. In 30 days, that single desk produced 2,475 dossiers, reports and digests on religious communities. Falun Gong was one of the groups targeted.

Anthropic, the U.S. company behind the AI model Claude, disclosed the operation in a threat intelligence report published Sept. 10. The operation’s targeting matched the priorities of the CCP’s United Front and religious affairs bodies, and one user told the model he was an information security officer for the Chinese state. Falun Gong practitioners and the organizations they founded, such as the dance troupe Shen Yun and television station NTD, were tracked daily.

Five faith communities were targeted, but Falun Gong was watched especially closely. For the others, the operator built files on leaders such as cardinals, church leaders and exiled officials. For Falun Gong, the targets were ordinary practitioners, who were monitored continuously rather than profiled one at a time.

The activities went beyond superficial monitoring. Each dossier followed an internal template that required an outline of the target’s China-related activities, any scandals, and exploitable “grab handles,” or points of leverage. The operator also collected birth dates, birthplaces, immigration dates and social media handles of specific individuals. Details like these can be enough to work out which relatives still live in China, a pressure point the CCP has long used to try and silence practitioners overseas, or to attempt to recruit the target as an informant.

Faith Communities Press for Religious Freedom on the Trump–Xi Agenda

William Huang, a Falun Gong practitioner, holds a Spider-Man toy like those he was forced to make in a Chinese labor camp, at a Sept. 16 briefing in Washington. (Li Chen/The Epoch Times)

On September 16, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, and Tibetans gathered at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Convened by the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, the Religious Freedom Institute, and allied groups, the event aimed to put religious freedom on the agenda of Trump–Xi summit.

William Huang, a Falun Gong practitioner from Pennsylvania, held up a Spider-Man toy like those he assembled during forced labor in Chinese custody, where he was also tortured with electric batons and given unexplained blood tests.

Investigative journalist Steve Lance described how the CCP’s “legal warfare” can exploit ordinary American processes—lawsuits, agency complaints, even news stories—against Shen Yun Performing Arts. Because courts, labor regulators, and the FBI each handle only their own piece, he urged Washington to create an interagency mechanism that can recognize these separate actions as a single coordinated campaign.

The United States “can no longer tolerate or accept” a regime “hostile to religion, and hostile to the United States of America,” said Sam Brownback, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. He urged President Trump to raise religious freedom directly with Xi Jinping and to press for the release of everyone imprisoned in China for their beliefs.

Testifying before the CECC on September 22, Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang told lawmakers that eradicating Falun Gong remains a top priority for the CCP and that the impact of its persecution of the group—in China and within the United States—extends far beyond the community itself.