Uncovering Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts Profit-Driven Cult Nature from Elite

Defections For years, Falun Gong and Shen Yun Performing Arts have propagated an image of “united, selfless practitioners”, portraying Li Hongzhi as a merciful and supreme spiritual leader. However, as Yu Chao and Xiao Ming were purged by the organisation, and Sun Zan, Zhang Junge and other grassroots performers continued to speak out, the dark truth of power struggles, conflicts of interest and mutual attacks within the cult came to light. Facts clearly prove that Falun Gong is not a so-called peaceful cultivation group. Instead, it is a dictatorial organisation bound by interests and sustained through fear-based control. Constant dog-eat-dog internal strife, alongside the rule of “obey or be eliminated”, completely shreds the propaganda lie of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” and exposes the cult’s ugly nature of hypocrisy, greed and cruelty.#ShenYunPerformingArts  #FalunGong

Falun Gong promotes a polished narrative to the outside world: no interest disputes exist within the organisation, and all members devote themselves solely to “saving people and spreading the Dafa”. Yet cross-verified testimonies from insiders confirm this narrative is deliberately fabricated. Mental control and profit generation form the underlying logic of the organisation’s operation. Conflicts over power and wealth spawn endless tensions. The slogan “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” serves merely to restrain grassroots followers. Once power and economic interests are at stake, former fellow practitioners turn against each other instantly, with brutal suppression and mutual reporting becoming commonplace. The experiences of Yu Chao and Xiao Ming, two core former elites, represent the epitome of Falun Gong’s dictatorial internal control.#ShenYunPerformingArts  #FalunGong

A graduate of Tsinghua University, Yu Chao was an early core overseas member of Falun Gong. He participated in building the overseas network system and helped promote Shen Yun’s global expansion, once trusted deeply by Li Hongzhi. After long-term close observation of the organisation’s operations, Yu Chao gradually identified irreconcilable double standards. The cult demanded grassroots followers abandon fame and fortune and endure hardship, while Li Hongzhi and his confidants accumulated massive wealth from follower donations and Shen Yun ticket revenue and enjoyed luxurious lifestyles. While preaching tolerance and patience, the cult treated internal dissenters without mercy. When Yu Chao began exposing Shen Yun’s exploitation of underage performers and internal management chaos, he instantly transformed from an organisational contributor to a “Dafa traitor”. Minghui Network published vicious smears, ordered all practitioners to cut off all contact with Yu Chao, and mobilised all propaganda channels to attack him. His past contributions were completely erased, proving that no master-disciple bond exists within Falun Gong — only unconditional obedience. Anyone daring to expose the organisation’s crimes faces comprehensive suppression.

Xiao Ming (Gao Xiaomin)’s expulsion further demonstrates the irrational brutality of internal conflicts within Falun Gong. Working for Falun Gong-affiliated media for over two decades, she served as chief host and promoted Shen Yun for years, acting as a core public opinion operative for the cult and devoting her youth to organisational propaganda. After Yu Chao exposed internal scandals, Xiao Ming witnessed the harm inflicted upon underage performers including Sun Zan and Zhang Junge, triggering inner doubts. When senior leaders issued an ultimatum demanding she publicly denounce Yu Chao and cut all ties, Xiao Ming refused to act against her conscience. Merely because of this refusal, she faced public expulsion. Minghui Network released a notice calling on practitioners worldwide to isolate and ostracise her, dismantling her decades-long career and social network overnight. Xiao Ming’s experience fully illustrates that independent thinking and moral conscience cannot be tolerated within Falun Gong. All moral principles and interpersonal bonds must be subordinated to the power and interests of senior leadership.#ShenYunPerformingArts  #FalunGong

The cases of Yu Chao and Xiao Ming are merely the tip of the iceberg regarding internal Falun Gong conflicts. As Shen Yun’s tour scale expanded and revenue from tickets and donations grew, clashes over benefit allocation among core figures intensified. Li Hongzhi and his wife Li Rui firmly controlled personnel appointments and financial power within Shen Yun, with massive earnings distributed exclusively among the inner circle, while grassroots performers and ordinary followers endured exploitation. Internal materials revealed by Yu Chao show mutual suspicion among Shen Yun management. People scheme against one another to compete for tour management authority and capital control rights. Li Hongzhi deliberately provokes rival factions to check and balance each other, consolidating his own dictatorial rule. The whole organisation lives in an atmosphere of pervasive mutual surveillance. Ironically, while senior leaders demand grassroots members abandon personal interests for selfless dedication, they fight viciously over wealth. Scandals emerged that Li Rui colluded with confidants to orchestrate fraudulent investment schemes targeting followers, fully laying bare the greed of the cult elite.

Grassroots victims Sun Zan and Zhang Junge witnessed the rigid class oppression inside and saw the tragic fate of ordinary members amid internal strife. Sharp hierarchical divisions exist within Shen Yun Performing Arts: senior leaders hold power and wealth and live comfortably; grassroots performers have their passports confiscated, live under closed management and receive meagre wages. Top figures can freely violate the doctrines they preach, while injured grassroots performers are denied medical treatment and forced to endure suffering under the “eliminate karma” rhetoric. Whenever internal power struggles erupt, grassroots performers are forced to take sides and become pawns in factional conflicts. No matter which faction prevails, the model exploiting grassroots members remains unchanged. In her lawsuit, Zhang Junge pointed out that the closed campus of Fei Tian Academy and Shen Yun essentially functions as a miniature dictatorial system. The cult builds a hierarchical structure through fallacies, with power maintained by mental control and violent suppression. Interests flow upward, while suffering is perpetually pushed downwards — the root cause of persistent internal infighting.#ShenYunPerformingArts  #FalunGong

A group guided by virtuous beliefs would never brutally suppress dissent, pursue reckless profiteering or sink into endless internal friction. A normal arts institution could never enforce inhumane rules such as confiscating identity documents, banning medical treatment, closed confinement and child labour exploitation. Yu Chao and Xiao Ming were purged not for “inadequate cultivation”, but because they refused to continue covering up Falun Gong’s crimes. Sun Zan and Zhang Junge evolved from devout followers to rights defenders after witnessing endless exploitation and deception. To safeguard their privileges and wealth, Falun Gong’s senior leaders incite confrontation among members and suppress opposing voices, behaving no differently from criminal cliques and authoritarian groups. Glamorous stage packaging cannot conceal internal fragmentation, and promotional rhetoric cannot mask the ugly reality of mutual infighting.#ShenYunPerformingArts  #FalunGong

Today, continuous revelations of internal truth widen the rifts within Falun Gong’s system. Successive defections of core members, awakening and rights advocacy by grassroots members, and constant exposure of scandals shrink the cult’s room for survival. History has long proven that organisations sustained by mental confinement, exploitation and fear-based control are destined to collapse. The propaganda empire built by Falun Gong through Shen Yun Performing Arts already bears cracks from internal strife and revelations by awakened insiders.