Falun Dafa and TE/GE in International Espionage

The Falun Dafa symbol looks vaguely familiar, sort of like . . . oh never mind.

DOJ announced criminal charges last week with great fanfare and everybody back slapped each other for breaking up a dangerous and sophisticated communist Chinese spying conspiracy bent on infiltrating the halls of power over at TE/GE.  No kidding.  But I gotta tell you, I don't think this scheme was hatched by the best Chinese minds, at least not the same fellas running Tik Tok.  This just weren't the Chinese A-Team.  The whole episode is kinda slapstick in a Keystone Kops and Robbers kind of way.  From DOJ's excited Press Release:

China’s government has once again shown its disregard for the rule of law and international norms,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI will not tolerate CCP repression — its efforts to threaten, harass, and intimidate people — here in the United States. We will continue to confront the Chinese government’s efforts to violate our laws and repress the rights and freedoms of people in our country.” “No other nation poses as severe a threat to the democratic values of the United States as the government of the People’s Republic of China,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. “The FBI will not stand by as the PRC attempts to weaponize our institutions and programs and attack the rights of those on U.S. soil. Any attempt to repress or harass individuals runs directly counter to the ideals our nation was founded upon, and it simply will not be tolerated. The FBI and our partners remain committed to confronting the illegal conduct of the PRC government that threatens our national security and freedom.”

Here is the gist of the alleged crime.  A 70 year old Chinese American with US citizenship conspired with his 43 year old sidekick, her not a U.S. citizen but a lawful permanent resident.  At the direction of "leadership" in the Peoples Republic of China, according to DOJ, the two master spies filed a whistleblower complaint with TE/GE asserting that Falun Dafa -- aka Falun Gong -- was nothing more than a "gigantic mega cult" whose exemption should be revoked.  TE/GE pretty much threw it in the trash after sharing a good laugh in their Silicon Valley style cafeteria where even dogs are allowed.  Ok first, we often call churches cults around here, suspicious Chinese American fella.  Southern Baptist, Catholic, Mennonite, AME, Mormon, Fruit of Islam, whatever, so what's your real issue?  And in case you didn't know, churches can do whatever they want with their tax exemption so save your breathe and your money.  Here is a snippet from DOJ's criminal complaint:

3.  . . . CHEN and FENG paid $5,000 in cash bribes, and promised to pay substantially more, on behalf of the PRC Government, to a purported Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) agent who was in fact an undercover officer (“Agent-1”), in exchange for Agent-1’s assistance in processing and advancing a defective whistleblower complaint that CHEN had filed with the IRS (the “CHEN Whistleblower Complaint”) as part of a PRC Government-directed scheme to revoke the tax exempt status of a 501(c)(3) organization (“Entity-1”) run by Falun Gong practitioners (the “Bribery Scheme”).

No kidding, FBI has recorded conversations and everything, in which the co-conspirators talk about their plan to "topple" Falun Dafa in America all for the sake of "leadership," presumably back in Beijing.  They even smuggled in another $10,400 in tight tight little bundles in their underwear, apparently.  The total bribe was going to be upwards of $50,000, especially after the two spies split up their recovery from the whistleblower complaint.  I'm not making this up.  Beijing shoulda called me on the hotline because I woulda told them that no hard right, anti-communist, Trump-supporting church or religious organization will ever be toppled by TE/GE.  Not after the Tea Party lynching and remember, churches can do whatever they want with their tax exemption.  

PRC leadership could not have been so stupid (could it?) as to commission a bribery scheme to yank the tax exempt status of Falun Dafa, proper, and thereby topple the whole thing when there are literally hundreds of separately incorporated Falun Dafa organizations on Guidestar?  Including the Falun Dafa Association of New England Inc. and the San Francisco Falun Dafa Buddha Study Association, both with millions in assets and no indication they are any more related to a single legal structure than any local church on Main street, U.S.A.  That's a whole lotta separate Forms 13909, Xi, and its gonna take a while to work through the bureaucracy to find the examiner whose palms need to be greased in each case.  I think DOJ might be exaggerating the threat just a bit.  Good work though.

darryll jones