Resisting the CCP’s Transnational Repression: An Australian Mother and Daughter Speak Out Bravely (

On September 3, 2021, the preliminary round of the Europe and North America division of the 9th New Tang Dynasty Television International Classical Chinese Dance Competition continued in New York, United States. Shown here is Wu Ruixuan, a contestant in the young women’s division, performing the dance A Fleeting Moment of Splendor. (Dai Bing / The Dajiyuan)

[People News] Australian-born Wu Ruixuan once believed that the persecution of faith taking place in China was far removed from her own life. However, after traveling to New York at the age of 14 to study dance, she finally learned the truth behind her grandmother’s death, her grandfather’s helplessness, and the trauma her mother endured due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) transnational repression.

Now standing on the stage of Shen Yun, she tells stories through dance, yet time and again she has had to face bomb threats and death threats from the CCP.

Young as she is, she hopes to fight side by side with her journalist mother to expose the truth about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and to awaken people’s conscience and kindness.

Wu Ruixuan and her mother Rui Jun (photo provided by Rui Jun)

A Mother Busy Day and Night

From childhood to adulthood, Ruixuan noticed that her mother was always extremely busy.

Ruixuan’s mother, Rui Jun, has worked in the media for many years, often staying up late to write articles, going without sleep through the night, and frequently being away from home. When Ruixuan was young, she could not understand this and only felt neglected, with feelings of grievance and complaint often welling up inside her.

“I originally thought she was a workaholic who liked staying up all night and not sleeping. Only when I grew up did I understand: she was doing everything she could to let the world know about the crimes happening in China, hoping such tragedies would never happen again,” Ruixuan said.

More than ten years later, Ruixuan finally learned that three generations of her family had steadfastly upheld faith and kindness throughout the 26-year-long persecution in China.

Grandmother Dies Amid Persecution

Young Wu Ruixuan with her grandmother, Ma Guilin. (Photo provided by Rui Jun)

“When I was little, I only heard that my grandmother had come to Australia twice, and then never came again. When I asked my mother, ‘Why doesn’t Grandma come anymore?’ she fell silent; when I asked my father, he joked, ‘Because you’re not well-behaved,’” Ruixuan said.

Later, Ruixuan learned that her grandmother had died as a result of CCP persecution.

In 1997, Ruixuan’s grandmother, Ma Guilin, began practicing Falun Gong, and her severe migraines and other ailments miraculously improved. In 1998, she traveled to Australia to care for her daughter—Ruixuan’s mother, Rui Jun—who was about to give birth. Witnessing the tremendous changes in Ma Guilin, Ruixuan’s parents also began practicing Falun Gong.

However, after Ma Guilin returned to China, the CCP had already begun suppressing Falun Gong, and everything took a sudden turn for the worse.

In China, tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and detained; millions were imprisoned, sent to forced labor camps, or subjected to brainwashing classes, where they suffered brutal torture. At the same time, the CCP launched a comprehensive propaganda smear campaign. Television stations, newspapers, and radio broadcasts ran fabricated attacks against Falun Gong around the clock, creating an atmosphere of hatred, including the “Tiananmen self-immolation incident” (internationally confirmed to be a staged hoax).

In early 2000, Ma Guilin was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor. After being persecuted for more than eight months at the Shanghai Women’s Forced Labor Camp, her once-healthy body rapidly deteriorated. In order to shirk responsibility, the CCP hastily released her when she was on the brink of death. After being sent to the hospital for examination, doctors diagnosed her with late-stage liver cancer.

CCP Transnational Repression: Mother Unable to Return Home to See Grandmother One Last Time

After hearing the devastating news, Ruixuan’s mother, Rui Jun, went to the Chinese Embassy in Australia with her Australian passport to apply for a family visit visa. However, embassy officials demanded that she sign a guarantee stating she would “no longer practice Falun Gong,” which Rui Jun refused on the spot. She subsequently submitted applications many times, all of which were denied, and she was never able to make the trip.

Eventually, under pressure from the Australian government, the Chinese embassy reluctantly issued Rui Jun a one-month entry visa and stated that she could apply for an extension after returning to China. However, once Rui Jun arrived in China, the relevant authorities refused to extend her visa, and she was ultimately forced to return to Australia.

Rui Jun was the only child in her family. After she left China, Ma Guilin’s condition, which had briefly improved, worsened again. During this period, the hospital issued multiple critical condition notices. Yet the Chinese consulate consistently refused to issue Rui Jun a visa, preventing her from returning home to visit her mother.

On one occasion, when Rui Jun submitted an application, a CCP official at the Chinese Embassy in Australia snatched her passport and threw it out the window, declaring, “Since you enjoy the freedom to practice Falun Gong in Australia, we (in Australia) have the right to prevent you from returning to China to see your mother.”

Ruixuan’s grandmother passed away on December 1, 2002. Rui Jun was barred from entering the country and was unable to attend the funeral.

Transformation at Fei Tian Academy of the Arts

Ruixuan described herself, before coming to Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, as a “rebellious girl,” who “liked excitement and novelty and was very curious about the outside world.”

Her parents worried that she might be influenced by unhealthy social trends and suggested that she attend Fei Tian Academy of the Arts.

Located in New York, Fei Tian Academy of the Arts is a non-profit private arts school founded by Falun Dafa practitioners. Centered on the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,” it not only provides artistic training but also teaches traditional culture and emphasizes moral education.

“Just like Catholic families want their children to attend Catholic schools, my parents knew that people at Fei Tian conduct themselves according to ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,’ so they hoped I could grow up in that environment,” Ruixuan recalled.

Thus, the life trajectory of an Australian girl once on the edge of rebellion quietly shifted.

Before this, Ruixuan had never received systematic dance training. At most, she had danced casually to music in school clubs. Although she loved sports and had decent physical fitness, it was only after beginning professional training that she realized how grueling the work behind every seemingly light and graceful movement on stage truly was.

“A jump or a turn that looks effortless on stage is actually the result of sweat and tears, refined bit by bit,” Ruixuan said.

The real challenge began with stretching. “One of the core elements of dance is flexibility. Stretching is extremely painful,” she said. Combined with her not-so-good coordination, “controlling every detail of each limb was very difficult for me.”

She admitted that there were times she wanted to give up. But the environment at Fei Tian kept her there.

“There, teachers and classmates encourage each other. We work together and push each other to become better.”

She said what truly supported her perseverance was “knowing what I am doing.” She found her direction in life.

“Shen Yun is reviving traditional culture and also exposing the truth about the persecution. I feel this is my responsibility,” Ruixuan said.

Portraying Stories of Persecution on Stage

Shen Yun dancer Wu Ruixuan (image from the Shen Yun Performing Arts official website)

In the 2025 Shen Yun program Crimes Unseen Before, Ruixuan plays the female lead—a wife whose husband is persecuted by the CCP.

In the story, the husband is imprisoned on his wedding day for practicing Falun Gong and later has his corneas forcibly harvested in prison, leaving him blind and wandering the streets. When the couple reunites, he can no longer see his wife’s appearance. Only when divine beings appear does he finally regain his sight.

Ruixuan said that when performing this role, she did not need to deliberately summon emotions; she naturally resonated with the story. She thought of her deceased grandmother, the pain in her mother’s heart, and recalled her grandfather’s loneliness and helplessness on the other end of international phone calls.

Ruixuan also thought of her friend who lost her father at the age of four. Simply for practicing Falun Gong, her friend’s father was imprisoned and tortured to death by the CCP. Such tragedies are only one example among tens of thousands of Falun Gong persecution cases.

Personally Experiencing CCP Transnational Repression

In 2017, Ruixuan traveled with the troupe to New Zealand to perform. It was the last stop before she returned to Australia to perform and reunite with family and friends.

Upon arriving at the ASB Theatre in Auckland, Ruixuan noticed several people standing outside the theater “protesting,” attempting to obstruct audiences from watching Shen Yun.

Ruixuan recalled that a member of their troupe approached the protesters and asked, “What are you doing? Why are you protesting?” One woman candidly admitted that she did not really know or care what she was protesting; she was simply doing it to earn an hourly wage of 20 New Zealand dollars (about 12 U.S. dollars).

Ruixuan said this made them realize that the protesters had been paid and hired specifically to sabotage Shen Yun performances.

For many years, the CCP has used diplomatic pressure, hired troublemakers, harassed audiences, and threatened performers’ families. This year, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., also received fake bomb threats, forcing the theater to evacuate.

Between 2024 and 2025, Shen Yun received bomb threats and shooting threats with alarming frequency, causing disruptions and impacts at some theaters.

Ruixuan said, “During our European tour, we frequently received bomb threats. Some theaters took security very seriously, using bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol every day; others were quite calm, saying, ‘Other theaters have received bomb threats too—we’re no exception. So there’s no need to worry too much.’

“Some theaters were very supportive of Shen Yun. When they heard that bomb threat emails might be received, they even joked, ‘It’s okay—today is Saturday, we won’t check emails until Monday.’ Meaning that by next Monday, you’ll already be gone, so there’s nothing to worry about.

“One theater in the Netherlands received a bomb threat letter, and the threat was actually sent in Norwegian—the methods were crude.”

Ruixuan emphasized that the CCP’s transnational repression must be held accountable and cannot be tolerated by the international community.

She also said sadly that in recent years, many defamatory statements targeting Shen Yun have echoed CCP propaganda almost word for word. She sincerely hopes people will listen more to Shen Yun’s own voice and not be misled.

“Hoping to Pass Kindness on to the World”

“Behind every performer is their own story—about persecution, about perseverance, about how they made it to where they are today…” Ruixuan said.

Currently, Ruixuan is pursuing a master’s degree in Classical Chinese Dance at Fei Tian College and will begin participating in Shen Yun’s 2026 global touring season at the end of this year.

“We hope to pass kindness on to the world; we hope audiences can feel beauty and see hope through Shen Yun’s dance.”

On the morning of February 19, 2024, Shen Yun’s New York Company arrived at Brisbane International Airport in Queensland. Shown here is Shen Yun dancer Wu Ruixuan (Kathy Wu) being interviewed. (Lai Nianzhen / The Dajiyuan)

(Reported by Dajiyuan reporter Xiao Yun)
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