House Passes Bi-Partisan Bill that Sanctions China’s Organ Harvesting for Profit
The U.S. House’s unanimous passage of the Falun Gong Protection Act is long overdue—and profoundly necessary. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) practice of forced organ harvesting is among the most barbaric and despicable human rights violations of our time. It’s not just happening—it’s industrialized. The bill rightly calls out the practice for what it is: a campaign of extermination for profit.
As a spokesperson for Shen Yun Performing Arts, which is banned in China for promoting traditional Chinese culture and exposing the CCP’s abuses, I can speak directly to why Falun Gong practitioners have been targeted. The reasons are horrifying in both cruelty and cold logic. First, practitioners are considered ideological enemies of the state for their beliefs in truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—values that terrify authoritarian regimes. Second, Falun Gong adherents lead extremely healthy lifestyles. The CCP sees their bodies as more “valuable” for organ extraction. The result is a quiet genocide dressed up as a business.
The connection between Shen Yun and this bill is not abstract. Shen Yun artists are Falun Gong practitioners themselves. Some of us have had family members arrested, tortured, or even disappeared in China. Every performance tells part of this story through dance and music because we are determined to shed light on what the CCP tries to hide.
There’s also a geopolitical layer to this moment. As U.S.-China tensions escalate over tariffs and trade, the Falun Gong Protection Act puts a spotlight on the moral dimension of this rivalry. Americans are right to be concerned about economic dependence on a regime that treats its own citizens as sources of spare parts. This vote is a bipartisan affirmation that human rights can—and should—be a core pillar of U.S. policy toward Beijing.
Schedule an interview with a Shen Yun spokesman today!!
Relevant Article(s)
House Passes Falun Gong Protection Act to Counter CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting | NTD
OPTIONAL Q&A:
- Shen Yun is known for its powerful storytelling through dance—how does it portray the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners on stage?
- The U.S. House just unanimously passed a bill condemning the CCP’s forced organ harvesting—what’s your reaction to that vote, and why is it personally significant to Shen Yun performers?
- Why are Falun Gong practitioners specifically targeted for forced organ harvesting in China, and what makes this group such a focus for the CCP?
- Shen Yun is banned in China—what does that say about the nature of your performances and the message they carry?
- You’ve said some Shen Yun dancers or musicians have had family members persecuted in China. Can you share any of their stories, and how those experiences influence the performances?
- As U.S.–China tensions rise over trade and security, what role do you believe human rights issues—like forced organ harvesting—should play in U.S. foreign policy?
- How does Shen Yun connect the beauty of traditional Chinese culture with today’s political and human rights realities in China?
- For audiences who may not be familiar with the Falun Gong or the scale of persecution happening in China, what do you most want them to understand after watching a Shen Yun performance?
- 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.
