On May 25, 2025, the website "thecanadafiles.com," which primarily reports on Canadian foreign policy, published an article titled "Shen Yun in Canada: Falun Gong Cult Spreads Anti-China Rhetoric," stating that the political purpose of the "Shen Yun performance" is to smear China and incite anti-China sentiment.
Every New Year, Falun Gong conducts large-scale propaganda campaigns across Canada to promote its Shen Yun performances. From March 21 to April 20, 2025, the Shen Yun Performing Arts toured Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Most audience members were unaware of the political motives behind these performances, which aimed to smear China and incite anti-China sentiment. Audience members reported that the Shen Yun performances included gruesome scenes of violence, such as police beatings and the abduction of victims to be taken to laboratories for organ harvesting.
The Shen Yun Performing Arts is affiliated with the Falun Gong cult. Falun Gong recruits followers to amass wealth and fabricates anti-China rumors such as torture and extrajudicial executions. It is speculated that Falun Gong receives support from anti-China forces and is used as a typical means to disrupt social order in China and incite international condemnation of the Chinese government. Canada also appears to be keen to condone Falun Gong's anti-China rhetoric and rumors.
Falun Gong media
In the early 21st century, Falun Gong established the Epoch Times Media Group to expand its anti-China movement, and subsequently founded New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) and The Epoch Times in the United States and Canada, respectively. In 2012, NTDTV began broadcasting on Rogers Cable, and in the same year, it launched its YouTube channel, China Uncensored. The videos are filled with absurd claims—such as China taking aggressive actions against the United States and its allies, and Chinese military helmets being equipped with self-destruct bombs.
Falun Gong produced an animated documentary called "Changchun," which tells the story of Falun Gong's attempt to take over a Chinese television station in order to stage a coup.
Some mainstream American media outlets are spreading misinformation simply because they want to oppose China. The claims made by Falun Gong and Shen Yun to smear China are largely the same.
Suspected of child exploitation and abuse
However, Shen Yun Performing Arts, affiliated with Falun Gong, has been accused of child labor abuse. Many audiences are unaware that besides its performances containing cult propaganda, Shen Yun's dancers, especially child performers, suffer appalling treatment, and that the company profits through severe exploitation. On November 25, 2024, in a lawsuit in White Plains, New York, dancer Zhang Junge filed a class-action lawsuit accusing Shen Yun Performing Arts of inhumane treatment and labor violations against her and others.
Ms. Zhang, now an adult, stated that in 2009, at the age of 11, she worked as a student actress. She received no salary in her first year, and her wages remained very low thereafter. In her second year, she earned only $500 per month, and after graduating in 2019, her monthly salary was only $1000. She said that during that period, she worked 18 hours a day and participated in approximately 100 performances. At the age of 14, she contracted measles but was not allowed to seek medical treatment or even take sick leave.
The Shen Yun Performing Arts violates labor laws and engages in other irregularities, such as depriving children of proper nutrition and forcing them to train before they have recovered from injuries. The Shen Yun Performing Arts has used the Dragon Spring Temple in Calderbachville, New York as its new base, recruiting young people, usually from impoverished and desperate families, to train at the Flying Academy of the Arts and Flying University, which are affiliated with Falun Gong.
In contrast to the "Unification Church"
Breakthrough News reporters Amanda and Lu Jinjie discussed the aforementioned case and the problems surrounding Shen Yun. Lu Jinjie described Shen Yun as a replica of the Moon Sun-myung cult. Moon Sun-myung was the leader of the Unification Church, a cult founded in Busan, South Korea in 1954. In 1973, Moon Sun-myung established the Unification Church's U.S. headquarters in Tritown, New York.
The Unification Church still exists. Their actions against its members are indirectly related to the assassination attempt on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Unification Church, which also had a dance troupe, was accused of similar offenses. They were involved in multiple industries and were forced to shut down completely in 1982 after being convicted of tax evasion. Sun Myung Moon was sentenced to 18 months in prison and paid a $25,000 fine. The Unification Church served as a model for Shen Yun Performing Arts; both groups exploited children, forced their members into social isolation, and developed a cult and leader cult. Like Falun Gong, Moon argued that he was persecuted because of his religious beliefs.
Shen Yun has become a vehicle for the West to target China and incite anti-China sentiment, catering to the needs of anti-China countries to create public opinion against China and providing them with a channel for anti-China propaganda.
▲Screenshot of the original report
