{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415868", "The Epoch Times article on Smith hearing'Congress Warned About Beijing's Repression on US Soil'", "2026-09-23", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Eva Fu\n\nPublished September 23, 2026\n\nWASHINGTON\u2014The Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP\u2019s) sweeping repression targeting one faith group is creating a challenge to the United States and allowing Beijing to expand its toolbox to persecute other communities, a Falun Gong spokesperson testified to Congress.\n\nErping Zhang described a wide spectrum of Beijing-linked tactics targeting the spiritual community, playing out in America\u2014including assault, anonymous violent threats, spying, disinformation, and frivolous lawsuits.\n\nThe tactics can be used against \u201cany group the CCP decides is a problem,\u201d Zhang told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Sept. 22.\n\n\u201cThe regime\u2019s actions undermine the basic rights of Americans and the rule of law,\u201d he said in his written testimony.\n\n\u201cThe impact of this activity reaches far beyond our own community, creating a playbook of tactics that the regime can use against other targets while undermining U.S. democracy, freedom, and sovereignty.\u201d\n\nZhang pointed to a June report by the Falun Dafa Information Center, which identified more than 600 cases of transnational repression incidents across 30 states.\n\nFalun Gong practitioners have faced these threats for simply practicing their faith in the United States, Zhang said.\n\nFalun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice with spiritual teachings based on the core tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. In the 1990s, 70 million to 100 million people began practicing, with many crediting Falun Gong for uplifting their physical and mental well-being. In 1999, the Chinese communist regime marked it for eradication.\n\nOrganizations monitoring the persecution have verified thousands of deaths, which they say represent a drop in the ocean.\n\nBetween March and April, nearly 800 practitioners in China reported experiencing harassment, arrest, or house raids, according to Minghui.org, a clearinghouse for such information. The oldest of them was 94.\n\nSince 1999, Falun Gong practitioners have been \u201cdetained by the millions, tortured, sexually abused, forced into producing goods that reached American shelves, subjected to forced organ harvesting,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cThat apparatus was later turned onto the Uyghurs.\u201d\n\nSeveral Chinese officials hit with U.S. sanctions for repressing Uyghurs in China\u2019s Xinjiang region have a history of persecuting Falun Gong, an Epoch Times review of their records found.\n\nRep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who chaired the congressional hearing, noted that the repression doesn\u2019t end at the prison gate.\n\nTo see \u201cspiritual disciplines like Falun Gong suffer so horribly in China underscores that we have to do more, not less,\u201d he said.\n\nBe it Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, or Uyghurs, Smith said, \u201cthey are the best citizens imaginable.\u201d\n\n\u201cVery often, they have a code of conduct that\u2019s written on their hearts,\u201d he told The Epoch Times. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t you want more of that? I don\u2019t get it.\u201d\n\nBeyond China, the Falun Gong community has become a top target for the regime\u2019s \u201cunrestricted war\u201d against religious freedom, Zhang said in his written testimony.\n\nIn 2023, the Department of Justice charged two Chinese agents for trying to bribe an IRS official to act on a fake whistleblower complaint against Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based arts company founded by Falun Gong practitioners. John Chen, one of the alleged agents acting under Chinese authorities\u2019 orders, stated his goal was to help the regime \u201ctopple\u201d Falun Gong, according to court documents. Both Chen and the other Chinese national pleaded guilty.\n\nSince March 2024, more than 300 anonymous death threats and bomb threats linked to Chinese individuals have been sent, targeting Falun Gong and Shen Yun, as well as lawmakers supportive of Falun Gong, and several civil institutions, according to Falun Dafa Information Center.\n\nThe center also counted dozens of cases in which individuals impersonated Falun Gong practitioners to make fake threats.\n\nIn late January, foreign influence research group Graphika flagged a cluster of websites linked to Chinese companies that push Beijing\u2019s propaganda overseas while masquerading as legitimate Western media, corroborating an Epoch Times report finding similar operations on X.\n\nZhang said Falun Gong has long served as a target of Beijing\u2019s repression tactics.", 1, "2026-09-25T10:04:52Z", "2026-09-25T10:05:46Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415868"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8553131483495235, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}