China’s Communist Party Influence on American Media
Something’s rotten when major U.S. media outlets start sounding like Beijing. As the Trump administration has been engaged with China through tough tariff negotiations, some American newsrooms appear more interested in echoing CCP spin than defending U.S. leverage. Some U.S. voices rush to declare that Trump “blinked.” Regardless of one’s position on the trade talks, it’s off-putting to see American media side with geopolitical foes and communist lies.
And it’s not just on trade. The New York Times, for example, has taken direct aim at Shen Yun—an American-born classical Chinese arts company that dares to criticize the CCP and promote traditional values. When the press attacks a dance troupe harder than a dictatorship, you know something is seriously off.
What’s happening to Shen Yun, a New York-based American company that opposes the Chinese Communist regime, is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a snapshot of a deeper, more troubling problem within the American media.
Which raises a question: Who benefits when an American media outlet undermines a homegrown artistic troupe that champions freedom of expression, rejects communist ideology, and dares to tell the story of China’s lost spiritual heritage?
The details of the trade negotiations are not really the issue here. What’s at issue is media reaction to them. In a sane world, a country’s media outlets would not tip the scales in favor of distant, foreign Communist dictators. Perception matters in these types of struggles.
Shen Yun’s message and mission aren’t just inconvenient to the CCP—they’re existentially threatening. The show revives thousands of years of divinely inspired Chinese civilization, which the CCP has worked for decades to erase. And in doing so, Shen Yun shines a spotlight on the Party’s ongoing persecution of religious minorities, censorship, and human rights abuses.
We believe your audience will be intrigued by this angle—how coverage of a dance troupe can reveal far more about geopolitical allegiances and media integrity than most would expect. We’d be honored to offer you an interview with someone from the Shen Yun-affiliated community who can unpack what’s really at stake when American media lend their platforms to pro-CCP narratives.
Schedule an interview with a Shen Yun spokesman today!!
Relevant Article(s)
The U.S.-China trade ‘deal’ is no deal. The U.S. just blinked.
OPTIONAL Q&A:
- How has the Chinese Communist Party attempted to interfere with Shen Yun’s performances internationally?
- Why do you think major U.S. media outlets like the New York Times have targeted Shen Yun so aggressively?
- What message does Shen Yun aim to deliver through its performances, and why is that message so threatening to the CCP?
- As a company rooted in traditional Chinese culture, how do you reconcile that heritage with your strong anti-CCP stance?
- Has the rise in U.S.–China tensions made your mission more urgent or more difficult?
- Do you believe American audiences fully grasp the political and spiritual significance behind Shen Yun’s performances?
- What role do you think Shen Yun plays in the broader effort to expose human rights abuses and censorship in China?
- Have you seen a shift in public or political support in the U.S. as more people become aware of CCP influence campaigns?
- What message does Shen Yun hope to send to audiences around the world about freedom, truth, and resilience?
- Where can we learn more about the beautiful art of Shen Yun, and how it motivates others?
- The official website can be found here. Tickets to shows are also available there for purchase.
ABOUT LEESHAI LEMISH…
Leeshai Lemish has been with Shen Yun for 18 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Chinese history and language from Pomona College, California, and his master’s in international relations from the London School of Economics. He has spent extended periods studying, working, and conducting research throughout East Asia, and has authored articles on Chinese current affairs in both English and Chinese. He joined Shen Yun Performing Arts as an MC when the company was founded in 2006 and has since emceed close to two thousand performances with the company, taking the stage with Shen Yun at prestigious theaters such as Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, the London Coliseum, Tokyo Opera City, and many others worldwide. In addition to his performance role, he has tracked and documented on his website over 100 cases of the Chinese Communist Party and its agents trying to sabotage Shen Yun internationally. He has testified on transnational repression in front of Congress, has been a featured guest on television and radio shows around the world, and is the host of the podcast Shen Yun Voices.
ABOUT LEVI BROWDE…
Levi Browde serves as the Executive Director with the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center – an organization dedicated to ending the human rights abuses against people who practice Falun Gong in China.
A career software entrepreneur, Levi’s life changed dramatically in 1999 when his best friend came to the office one morning and announced the Chinese Communist Party had taken away his mother in Beijing to be tortured and “brainwashed.” This marked the beginning of his volunteer work to defend human rights in China. Two years later, Levi himself was detained in a Chinese jail outside Beijing for secretly meeting with Western reporters and protesting on Tiananmen Square.
Over the past 20 years, Browde has been interviewed and quoted by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, CNN, the Associated Press, TIME Magazine, BBC, AFP, and other media outlets. He has spoken about Falun Gong and human rights in China at briefings on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, at the United Nations human rights sessions in Geneva, Switzerland.
Browde studied East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University and is an avid supporter of traditional Chinese culture. He founded several software start-ups, and lives in New York with his wife and two sons.
Samples of Levi on camera:
https://tv.faluninfo.net/unmasking-chinas-gestapo-610-office/
https://tv.faluninfo.net/levi-browde-exposes-the-new-york-times-distorted-coverage-of-human-rights/
ABOUT YING CHEN…
Ying Chen is an orchestra conductor who has been with Shen Yun from the very beginning. She can offer insights and personal stories about how Shen Yun started as an all-volunteer group of first- generation immigrants, and through hard work, faith, and a relentless dedication to a grand vision to revive a culture almost destroyed in communist China, created the fastest growing performing arts company in American history.
Ying can also tell the horrific story of her family’s detention and torture in China, an experience that helped drive her and the entire community at Shen Yun to create a production that would shed light on the tyranny of the Chinese communist regime, while also inspiring people around the world with hope and a renewed sense of our common humanity.
The story of Ying, her family, and community at Shen Yun is a quintessential tale of facing the evils of the world with resilience and faith, and never letting others, even the largest totalitarian regime on earth, take away one’s hope.
CONTACT: Todd Baumann at 512-966-0983 or by email Jerry McGlothlin at bookings@specialguests.com.
