Chinese Dissident Rescued to Canada Urges Vigilance Against CCP Interference, Transnational Repression

As a Falun Gong practitioner in China, Zhang Xinyan knew what the Chinese communist regime would do to those who raise awareness about its persecution of the peaceful meditation practice.That’s why she decided she could no longer stay in China when the principal of the school she taught at found out she was telling her students not to believe the slander that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spreads about the practice.Zhang Xinyan arrived in Vancouver as a UNHCR refugee fleeing Chinese regime persecution on Aug. 3, 2026. Courtesy of Zhang Xinyan“I wanted to tell people the truth about Falun Gong,” said Zhang, who fled to Thailand in 2014 to avoid persecution, becoming a U.N. refugee.Zhang, 55, recently arrived in Canada after it became too unsafe for her in Thailand, as Beijing had placed a bounty on her due to her work for Hong Kong democracy.But her departure from Thailand was also full of strife, she said, as the regime pressured the Thai government to forcefully return her to China. She was able to finally arrive in Vancouver on Aug. 3 thanks to the efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Canadian diplomats, and her supporters.She says she now wants to ensure everyone knows what the CCP is capable of and the risk dissidents face, and urges Canadians to be aware of the CCP’s transnational repression efforts and reject its interference attempts.“What happened to me could happen to anyone [fleeing the CCP],” Zhang told The Epoch Times. “I hope everyone pays very close attention to the CCP’s transnational repression.”PersecutionFalun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation discipline that was first taught to the public in China in 1992. It spread rapidly within a few years, with government statistics at the time showing that between 70 million and 100 million people had taken up the practice.Zhang learned about the practice through her parents in 1997, and became a practitioner herself.“My mother was always sick. After practising Falun Gong, she became very healthy,” Zhang said.Zhang said she wanted to follow the teachings of Falun Gong, which are based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, so that she could improve herself and become a better person.“I wanted to become better and better,” she said.But on July 20, 1999, then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin, who deemed Falun Gong’s popularity as a threat, launched a campaign of persecution against the practice, ordering practitioners to be arrested arbitrarily.Falun Dafa practitioners take part in a candlelight vigil commemorating fellow practitioners who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party in China, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on July 23, 2025. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch TimesSince then, thousands of practitioners have been subjected to harassment, torture, killing, and even live organ harvesting, while the CCP has spread falsehoods against the practice to demonize it in the eyes of the Chinese people, according to the Washington-based Falun Dafa Information Center.Like other Falun Gong practitioners, Zhang and her parents worked to raise awareness about the peaceful nature of the practice and to counter the CCP’s hate propaganda.One of the ways Falun Gong practitioners in China resist the persecution is by writing the message “Falun Dafa is good” on wall exteriors and banknotes.One day, when one of Zhang’s students asked her for money to buy something, she gave the student a banknote with those words on it. But the student took the paper money to the school’s principal, who scolded Zhang and said he would report her to the authorities.“I knew I would be arrested, so I had to leave,” Zhang said.Zhang had seen her parents’ home being ransacked by the police—a constant occurrence in the homes of many Falun Gong practitioners. Her parents both passed away while being subjected to such harassment by the CCP, she said.Zhang fled China to escape the same fate, arriving in Thailand in 2014.UN RefugeeOnce in Thailand, Zhang applied to become a UNHCR-registered refugee and was approved in 2016.While in Thailand, she says she continued to work to expose the CCP’s rights abuses and persecution campaign against Falun Gong.She also worked with Hong Kong democracy activists, who elected her as a member of the Toronto-based “Hong Kong Parliament” in 2025.Soon after, the Hong Kong police charged her and other members of the group under the CCP’s notorious National Security Law, placing a HK$200,000 (US$25,000) bounty on them.One of Zhang’s supporters, Toronto-based Chinese democracy activist Sheng Xue, contacted Global Affairs Canada about Zhang’s case in 2025, hoping to help bring her to Canada to avoid the CCP’s persecution campaign that reaches into Thailand.DetentionZhang says she was suddenly approached by Thai immigration police on May 7, who demanded to see her passport. She says she informed them that the Chinese Embassy had cancelled her passport when she applied to renew it, and that she was a U.N.-registered refugee, but they didn’t accept her explanation and took her to an immigration detention centre in Bangkok.“They said they would send me to China,” Zhang said. “If I’m sent back to China, I would face torture and be thrown into prison.”Police enter an immigration detention centre in Bangkok on Jan. 22, 2025. Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP via Getty ImagesShe says she was allowed to make a phone call while in detention, so she called Sheng.After learning of the situation, Sheng and other democracy activists in Canada and around the world worked to raise awareness about Zhang’s case, talking to Canadian government and U.N. officials and urging them to intervene.Canadian diplomats processed Zhang’s application on an expedited basis and arranged for her to leave for Vancouver on July 8. But she says Thai authorities refused to allow her to leave for the airport on that day, telling her that her ticket has been cancelled.Her case went to court on July 16, but the court ruled against her. She says a representative from Thailand’s immigration department said her plane ticket was cancelled at the request of the Chinese Embassy since she was wanted by the Hong Kong police.Meanwhile, Sheng and others continued working to have Canadian and U.N. authorities intervene on Zhang’s behalf and secure her release.NDP MP Jenny Kwan issued a statement on July 13 saying Zhang faced the risk of forceful return to China, which would “expose her to a serious risk of persecution.”There have been several cases of Chinese dissidents being forcefully returned from Thailand to China. In one example, democracy activists Dong Guangping and Jiang Yefei escaped to Thailand in 2015 but were sent back to China by Thai authorities. Both were imprisoned after their return.After several other failed escape attempts, Dong was able to arrive in Canada in June this year. Jiang’s fate remains unclear.Leaving ThailandSheng says that thanks to pressure from Canadian diplomats and the UNHCR, Thai officials finally agreed to release Zhang, dispatching a high-ranking police officer to escort her out of detention.Sheng Xue, a journalist, poet, and pro-Chinese democracy activist, at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto on May 11, 2025. Arek Rusek for The Epoch TimesA UNHCR official met Zhang at the airport in Bangkok, and she flew to Vancouver on Aug. 3.Zhang says that while she was in detention, she wasn’t aware that her supporters were working to secure her release.“I didn’t know anything,” she said. “I wish to say thank you to all, thank you all so much.”Transnational RepressionSheng says that in Zhang’s case, the CCP’s transnational repression failed.“After nearly three months of emergency rescue efforts, during which there were multiple moments when she was nearly deported to the CCP-controlled country, Zhang Xinyan is finally safe,” Sheng said.“This time, the CCP’s diplomatic hegemony and transnational repression have utterly failed.”Zhang agrees, saying that the CCP’s efforts eventually failed in her case. However, she adds that she wishes to let more Canadians know about the evil nature of the Chinese communist regime and how it attempts to infiltrate other countries.“I love Canada very much. I don’t want to see the CCP interfere in Canada,” she said.“I hope the government pays serious attention to the CCP’s transnational repression.”