Two men have pleaded guilty to acting as illegal Chinese agents in helping Beijing to further its suppression of the faith group Falun Gong in the United States. The pair, John Chen and Lin Feng, from California, worked for months in 2023 with a Chinese official in a scheme to bribe the IRS to revoke the nonprofit status of a New York-based organization run by Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong—a spiritual practice involving meditative exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—has faced a brutal 25-year suppression campaign in China at the hands of the Chinese communist regime. Millions of practitioners have experienced detention and torture, and an unknown number have been killed as part of state-directed forced organ harvesting.
Under the direction of the Chinese official, Mr. Chen filed a defective whistleblower complaint against the nonprofit with the IRS that contained rhetoric parroting vilifying propaganda that the Chinese regime uses to justify persecution.
The two men then paid $5,000 in cash bribes to an undercover officer disguised as an IRS agent, promising $50,000 for opening an audit on the nonprofit entity and 60 percent of any potential whistleblower award if successful.
In a recorded call, Mr. Chen explicitly said that these bribe payments aimed to “topple” Falun Gong. The Chinese “leadership” is “very generous,” he said during their conversation.
At a court hearing for Mr. Lin on July 25th , prosecutors revealed that Shen Yun Performing Arts was targeted by this scheme. Shen Yun is a classical Chinese dance and music company based in upstate New York that performs globally while showcasing China before communism. Many Shen Yun artists practice Falun Gong and their performances depict human rights abuses under Communist Party rule.
Beijing has designated Falun Gong as one of its top five threats to its rule due to its popularity among citizens who seek spiritual fulfillment outside state-sanctioned institutions.
Both Mr. Chen and Mr. Lin pleaded guilty to acting as unregistered foreign government agents and bribing public officials during their court appearance on July 25th . They will be sentenced at later dates but face maximum prison terms ranging from 12 months up until 25 years depending on individual circumstances outlined within plea agreements reached between defendants’ legal teams with federal prosecutors representing Southern District Court jurisdiction where charges were filed against them.
