Updated Report: Chinese Communist Party Increases the Utilization of Non-Chinese Individuals to Disrupt Falun Gong Activities in Canada
The Chinese regime has been increasingly utilizing non-Chinese individuals to surveil and interfere with Falun Gong practitioners in Canada. This information comes from an updated report that explains how the persecution of this practice extends beyond China’s borders.
“In recent years, non-Chinese individuals have been identified in assaults against Falun Gong practitioners in public places. The ethnic appearance of the assailants has changed, but the patterns of assault have remained constant over the past 25 years,” mentioned the Falun Dafa Association of Canada (FDAC) in the report.
The 130-page report, which was initially released in October 2023, highlights new incidents of influence and surveillance targeting Falun Gong adherents who have fled overseas.
The report outlines various instances where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tried to use non-Chinese individuals to monitor or intimidate Falun Gong practitioners during their activities in Canada.
One example is a Canadian freelance reporter who collaborated with Chinese state media Xinhua News for over two years. The reporter left in 2012 after being repeatedly asked to document dissident activities and collect names of attendees at Falun Gong press conferences.
The report also mentions that Falun Gong practitioners participating in peaceful protests outside Chinese embassies and consulates face the risk of being photographed. The regime uses these photos and personal information to intimidate them.
In an incident from July 2022, Falun Gong practitioners Mary Kovacks and Kathy Gillis reported being photographed by a middle-aged Caucasian male while meditating near the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa. The man responded with verbal abuse when confronted, accusing them of not belonging in Canada despite being Canadian-born citizens of Caucasian descent.
There have also been cases of physical violence against Falun Gong practitioners. As cited by FDAC, on April 27, 2022, a Caucasian man vandalized the banners of Falun Gong practitioners in Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto. When an elderly practitioner, Shuliang Ren, intervened, the man physically assaulted him until a bystander intervened.
“The CCP’s foreign influence is clandestine and deceptive. Non-Chinese Canadians have been recruited as agents by the CCP to monitor Falun Gong activities and conduct surveillance on practitioners,” stated FDAC.
The updated FDAC report was released ahead of the 25th anniversary of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, which began on July 20, 1999. The organization plans to submit the report to the Foreign Interference Commission, which is investigating allegations of China’s interference in Canadian electoral processes and targeting Canadian MPs and critics of the communist regime.
Adherents of Falun Gong—a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist traditions—have endured torture, forced labor, physical and sexual abuse, and even live organ harvesting by the CCP since the persecution campaign started in July 1999. The CCP perceived Falun Gong’s belief in divinity and morality as a challenge to its atheist ideology and a threat to its authoritarian rule in China.
