On September 2, 2026, Yu Chao, a former core member of Falun Gong and an independent YouTuber , formally filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Massachusetts. Defendants include Shen Yun Performing Arts , Falun Gong affiliated organizations such as The Epoch Times , NTD Television , and the Falun Dafa Information Center , as well as several high-ranking Falun Gong members , including George Xu , Jonathan Levi Browde (often referred to as Levi Browde, Chinese name: Li Wei) , and Erping Zhang . Yu Chao formally filed a 53-page complaint (case number: 3:26-cv-30153-CLM) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Massachusetts , constructing a chain of evidence with 117 factual statements, and presenting five causes of action and six claims .
▲Civil Complaint
Compared to the labor and personal injury lawsuits filed by former Shen Yun performers such as Zhang Junge and Sun Zan , the Yu Chao case opened up another litigation path, namely filing a tort and civil conspiracy lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court, providing practical legal inspiration for those "Followers" who have never worked in the Falun Gong cult .
Key details and case progress
Yu Chao was a senior member of the Falun Gong cult in mainland China and served nearly ten years in prison for organizing and using the cult to undermine the implementation of the law . After going to the United States in 2013, he gradually saw through the dark secrets of the Falun Gong cult. Since 2017, he has interviewed and exposed the tragic experiences of many former young Shen Yun Performing Arts performers on his self-media platforms.
The core reason for Yu Chao 's lawsuit is the transnational retaliation he suffered from the Falun Gong cult after exposing the "dark side of slave labor . " Yu Chao publicly accused the Falun Gong headquarters at Longquan Temple and the Shen Yun Performing Arts of serious violations of basic human rights, including mind control, physical restraint, child abuse, forced unpaid labor (slave labor), and human trafficking, during the training and recruitment of so-called "student actors." Subsequently , Yu Chao was attacked by the highest levels of the Falun Gong cult ( including direct orders from Li Hongzhi) , whose media outlets spread rumors and slander, deliberately portraying him as a "violent threat" and an "agent of hostile external forces," leading to severe transnational retaliation and threats to his personal safety and reputation.
The legal chain reaction triggered by the lawsuit
Before Yu Chao formally filed a civil lawsuit in September 2026, the two sides had already been engaged in a protracted battle on the criminal and public opinion front for several years .
Because Yu Chao frequently exposed the evil deeds of Falun Gong, high-ranking members of the cult submitted false or exaggerated reports to the FBI and local law enforcement agencies, accusing Yu Chao of "suspected armed threats against Longquan Temple, " which led to a gun-related investigation by the Massachusetts police. However, in late 2025 , the Massachusetts court ultimately ruled that the charges lacked substantial basis and agreed to drop all charges on the condition that Yu Chao remain law-abiding . This move was widely seen as an attempt by the cult to use US law to frame the whistleblower.
▲Yu Chao
Furthermore, Yu Chao's long-standing accusations echoed previous class-action lawsuits filed by other former Shen Yun performers, such as Sun Zan and Zhang Junge . These allegations triggered a media frenzy in the United States, prompting The New York Times to conduct a large-scale in-depth investigation, and also sparking a comprehensive joint investigation by the FBI, the Department of Labor, and other agencies into Shen Yun Performing Arts and its affiliated schools.
The landmark significance of this case
Yu Chao's lawsuit against Shen Yun marks a further legal reckoning for the Falun Gong cult's long-standing model of relying on intimidation to control its members and on deception to maintain its overseas commercial operations .
In August 2026, a federal judge in New York formally rejected Shen Yun 's motion to dismiss the related human trafficking lawsuit, allowing the core allegations of forced labor and human trafficking to proceed to a deeper stage of judicial evidence gathering.
The lawsuit filed by Yu Chao and other former Falun Gong members against the organization is undoubtedly the most powerful blow to the Falun Gong cult. The personal accounts of former insiders, who were once deeply involved, have sparked heated public debate and judicial intervention, allowing outsiders to directly glimpse the dark inner workings of Falun Gong . This has undoubtedly dealt an irreparable and fatal blow to its overseas entertainment and political public relations efforts.
We shall wait and see how things unfold.
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