Debunked: NYT is Shilling for the CCP by criticising Shen Yun

TheNZThrower

Active Member
As I am a former Falun Gong member, I feel like I might take a crack at fact-checking some of the more recent PR they have churned out in response to some recent expose's from The New York Times on the inner workings of the group and its affiliated organisations. Let's start with the expose on the labour practices of the FLG run theater troupe, Shen Yun:
External Quote:

Shen Yun's Longstanding Labor Practices Attract Regulators' Scrutiny
The New York State Department of Labor has opened an inquiry into the global dance group and its treatment of the children and teenagers who stage its shows worldwide.

https://archive.md/dcJEC#selection-669.0-673.167
Predictably, The Epoch Times has responded to the expose in advance, utilising the typical apologia that FLG members do.
External Quote:

The New York Times to Attack Shen Yun Performing Arts Again
The paper seems to again turn to misrepresentation in an attack mirroring Beijing's latest playbook.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/artic...attack-shen-yun-performing-arts-again-5760672
We already witness the ET employing an implicit guilt by association, wherein you are implied to be some CCP shill merely because your criticism of FLG resembles a criticism from FLG by the CCP.

Before we continue, I would like to inform you that I will be going over their response one point per post. So keep in mind I won't be responding to everything in this first post, as that would make it too long.

Firstly, the ET alleges that the CCP has targeted Shen Yun, and influences western newspapers against FLG:
External Quote:
For nearly two decades, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has targeted Shen Yun... The company was founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong... Falun Gong practitioners have for 25 years highlighted abuses they face in China... Shen Yun in its performances depicts some of these atrocities... Outside of China, the CCP has used tactics both aggressive and subtle to suppress Falun Gong... [including] infiltrating and utilizing Western media organizations to do its bidding.
This is meant to deflect and distract people from the criticisms levelled at FLG and Shen Yun. Even if we grant everything the ET alleges, that doesn't mean that the NYT expose's authors were CCP shills, nor does it mean that any criticism levelled against FLG and Shen Yun are somehow illegitimate. This is committing a red herring fallacy, as well as an appeal to pity.

In addition, the claim that the CCP has influenced some unnamed Western news outlets more broadly is not substantiated. It is an example of poisoning the well, a pre-emptive ad-hominem to colour the judgements of anyone on the fence about the topic of FLG.

The ET then claims that a strategy against the CCP has been leaked by whistleblowers, allegedly involving manufacturing allegations to trigger investigations from US authorities:
External Quote:
Earlier this year, three CCP whistleblowers came forward with information about an escalation in the CCP's efforts to go after Falun Gong overseas.

A cornerstone of the campaign is to manufacture the type of allegations that would most likely trigger an investigation by U.S. authorities, according to whistleblowers who provided detailed information to the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC), a nonprofit monitoring the persecution of Falun Gong.
Note that the source which claims that the whistleblowers disclosed the CCP strategy is a FLG run source per the ET's own admission. The FDIC's own website (https://faluninfo.net/about-us-our-staff/) lists the executive director:
Screen Shot 2025-01-04 at 10.21.59 pm.png

Per an article Levi himself wrote for minghui.org, an official FLG website, he is a member, which they call a "practitioner".
External Quote:
My name is Jonathan (Levi) Browde. I was born and raised in the southwestern United States. I am 27 years old... And, of course, I am a Falun Dafa practitioner.
https://en.minghui.org/emh/download/publications/enlighten_1.html
The same is the case for The Director of Government and Advocacy:
Screen Shot 2025-01-04 at 10.44.44 pm.png

External Quote:
On June 3, 2004, the U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a Member's briefing on China's current human rights situation in the Rayburn House Office Building. Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Erping Zhang was invited to the briefing and gave a 7-minute speech on the persecution of Falun Gong.
https://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2004/6/5/48924p.html

At the U.S. Department of State's first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom held on July 24-26, 2018, three Falun Gong practitioners were invited to attend the first two days of events that were open to religious groups and NGOs...

Erping Zhang, the spokesperson for Falun Gong and one of the three practitioners who attended the conference, talked about the current situation practitioners are facing in China.
https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2018/7/27/171282.html
And The Director of Digital Outreach:
Screen Shot 2025-01-04 at 10.44.52 pm.png

External Quote:
Benjamin Maloney from New York used to be addicted to alcohol and drugs. In 2008, a few months after he was arrested for DWI, a cousin of his introduced Falun Dafa to him, and he started to read Zhuan Falun (the main book of Falun Gong)...

Ben is grateful for Dafa and Master, who renewed his life and changed him from being a drunken and lost young soul into a useful adult who makes his parents and himself proud.
https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2018/6/23/170874p.html
This represents a lack of independence and a conflict of interest, which means the FDIC's claims are to currently be taken with a bucketful of salt until they're confirmed independently.

But even if the CCP did have some campaign to make up allegations that would likely trigger an investigation by U.S. authorities, that doesn't mean that a given person or group who has made an allegation/s against FLG/Shen Yun is some CCP shill. You need more direct evidence (e.g. being a member of some CCP affiliated org) than that to conclude that they're a CCP shill. If you're going to go by what the person/group says against FLG, you need to demonstrate that what they say and what the CCP says shares a high enough number of relevant similarities before you can make a reasonable probabilistic inference that they are a shill.

As for the FDIC report mentioned by the ET, I will tackle that in the next post. Additional constructive feedback on this debunk would be appreciated.
 
3 small comments:
The New York State Department of Labor has opened an inquiry into the global dance group and its treatment of the children and teenagers who stage its shows worldwide.
Epoch Times is attacking the NYT and not the Labor Department because the Department tolerated the practice until the NYT complained:
External Quote:
But the inquiry was opened following questions from The New York Times, which in August documented numerous instances of what legal experts and former performers describe as questionable labor practices by the group.
Full URL is https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/17/nyregion/shen-yun-child-labor-regulator.html
Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC)
There's a better known holder of the acronym: "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a United States government corporation supplying deposit insurance to depositors in American commercial banks and savings banks." (wikipedia) They were in the news a lot during the 2007/2008 banking crisis.
 
Is anyone prepared to do a BITE model analysis of FLG?
https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model-pdf-download/
They certainly do some behaviour control, information control, thought control and emotional control, so it's probably worth seeing how they rate compared to others.

It appears Steven Hassan himself thinks it's worth doing, as he's apparently done it himself. However, Instagram absolutely refuses to send me anything apart from a boilerplate placeholder, so I can't see what he's said beyond this search result:
External Quote:

Source: https://www.instagram.com/cultexpert/reel/C-0dX0mKJTQ/

I just read the latest NYT article exposing the inner workings of Falun ...

Aug 18, 2024 ... ... Falun Gong, and I couldn't wait to comment on it. I've done much research on this group and have connected their tactics to my BITE Model
 
Going back to the alleged whistleblowers, the prior ET article links to this ET article:
External Quote:

CCP Seeks to Manipulate US in Effort to Escalate Persecution of Falun Gong
Whistleblowers reveal how the Chinese regime is targeting the U.S. government, media, and online influencers in its efforts to 'eliminate' the spiritual group.
https://archive.md/mioH2
This links to the aforementioned Falun Dafa Information Centre (FalunDIC) report:
External Quote:

Weaponizing Social Media
The CCP's New Plan to "Eliminate" Falun Gong Worldwide

Newly leaked documents and escalating online attacks demonstrate war on Falun Gong heading into uncharted territory
https://archive.md/nQ7gz#selection-763.0-881.115
Much like the previous ET article, we will tackle the FalunDIC report point by point. The "whistleblowers" ET was referring to comes from this section of the FalunDIC report claiming that:
External Quote:
In June 2024, two separate individuals within the Chinese security apparatus who are sympathetic to Falun Gong, shared notes from internal meetings that shed light on the regime's attacks and indicate such a connection. They also provide details on other actions and goals of the MPS in targeting Falun Gong and sowing discord in the United States.[22] In July 2024, a third source provided details from an internal report issued by the Chinese state-run CITIC Foundation for Reform and Development Studies. It correlates to and expands upon the MPS directives. The documents cite an explicit goal of dismantling Falun Gong worldwide, including in the United States, and outline the following five tactics for achieving this aim.
Looking at the footnote in question, it says:
External Quote:
China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) is one of the principal organs of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, which oversees law enforcement, security and surveillance, cybersecurity, political security, and international "cooperation." The MPS is widely regarded as the primary organ of the Chinese regime that engages in political repression, abuse and torture, discrimination, and transnational repression.

In a 2021 press conference by the Ministry of Public Security, Falun Gong was listed as a national security priority ahead of Uyghurs and Tibetans. "公安部新闻发布会通报全国公安机关全力维护国家安全和社会大局稳定工作实效 [The press conference of the Ministry of Public Security reported on the effectiveness of public security agencies across the country in fully safeguarding national security and overall social stability]," Ministry of Public Security, April 16, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20230820105546/https:/www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-04/16/content_5599924.htm.
Of course, the FalunDIC report doesn't provide any citations, screenshots or links to the documents they allege came from the whistleblowers, probably not to anybody's surprise.

However, the allegations about the MPS are interesting, as FLG is implying that the MPS believes them to be a greater threat than the Uyghurs and Tibetans. Looking at the provided MPS link, we see that FLG is only mentioned once:
Screen Shot 2025-01-06 at 3.47.01 pm.png

The relevant translated paragraph is as follows:
External Quote:
Over the past seven years, the public security organs have insisted on safeguarding the security of the regime and the system as the core, and resolutely defended the country's political security... they have severely cracked down on and strictly prevented the infiltration, subversion, disruption and sabotage activities of hostile forces at home and abroad, and made every effort to prevent political security risks online and offline. They have... prevented and cracked down on illegal and criminal activities of cult organizations such as "Falun Gong" and "Almighty God [alternate name for the cult "Eastern Lightning"]" in accordance with the law, and carried out in-depth education and de-conversion of cult members involved in the case. They have fully implemented the Party's strategy for governing Tibet in the new era, carried out in-depth anti-secession campaigns [euphemism for their crackdowns in Tibet], and resolutely safeguarded the unity of the motherland and national unity. They have fully implemented the Party's strategy for governing Xinjiang in the new era, carried out in-depth anti-secession and anti-terrorism campaigns [euphemism for their persecution of Uyghurs], strengthened international anti-terrorism cooperation, and always maintained a high-pressure crackdown on violent terrorist activities. The situation of my country's anti-terrorism struggle has continued to improve, and no violent terrorist incidents have occurred for more than four consecutive years, presenting a good situation of social stability and harmony, and people living and working in peace and contentment.
While FLG is mentioned ahead of the achievements of the MPS in Xinjiang and Tibet, it isn't implied to be a higher priority threat at all.

Getting back on track, the Falun DIC doesn't provide any citations, screenshots or links to their third source of a CITIC report.
 

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In another part of the FalunDIC article, they claim that the ex-Shen Yun interviewees are lying about what they say, while throwing a bunch of ad hominems (bolded) in their direction. Their source are supposedly some anonymous interviews:
External Quote:
Alongside unsettling threats and commentary by these [allegedly CCP affiliated] YouTubers themselves, their videos have also featured interviews with former Shen Yun dancers or musicians—a small group of individuals who were dismissed from the company either for violating codes of conduct or simply failing to reach Shen Yun's artistic standards.
Seeming to hold a grudge toward Shen Yun
, these individuals often mix blatant lies with distortions of true events or people to create a highly misleading picture of Shen Yun. For example, some of these individuals claim Shen Yun discouraged them from receiving proper medical treatment for dance injuries—a false narrative debunked by well-documented medical treatment of many Shen Yun dancers who underwent surgeries for things like torn ACLs and knee injuries as well as regular medical treatment for minor aches and pains.[19]

[19] Interviews with current and former Shen Yun dancers who wished to remain anonymous, January to July 2024.
In reality, the NYT article that was published on 15/08/2024, a day after the archived alleged expose from FalunDIC, does mention the medical treatment of some of the dancers, but noted that it was rare:
Some Shen Yun performers who suffered severe injuries did receive treatment. When Sam Pu, one of the group's highest-profile dancers, ruptured his Achilles' tendon, he underwent surgery to repair it, he said in a video posted online last year.
External Quote:
In their statement, the representatives of Shen Yun and Falun Gong denied discouraging medical treatment.

"Shen Yun performers are offered and receive medical treatment whenever it is needed, and we have the medical records to prove it," they said.

But former performers and instructors told The Times that such interventions were rare.

Daisy Wang, who started touring with Shen Yun when she was 13, said she sprained her ankle five times in eight years but never asked for a doctor.

Doing so, Ms. Wang and others were told, would mean that something was wrong with their spiritual state.

Link again: https://archive.is/9STZB#selection-1675.0-1711.104
So it seems like you're not going to be convinced of the FLG PR unless you're already chugging the kool-aid
 
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