‘Broad surveillance system’ allows Beijing to target dissidents and faith groups beyond Falun Gong, expert says.
Combating violations of religious freedom around the world has been a policy of the United States for the past several decades.
Now, victims of a state-sponsored religious persecution—allegedly facilitated by a U.S. tech giant—are hoping to use legal tools to deter such conduct and to advance the goal of combating violations of religious freedom.
The lawsuit, first filed in 2011 seeking damages from California’s Cisco and two top executives, alleged that the company helped the Chinese Communist Party build an Orwellian surveillance network called Golden Shield that advanced the violent suppression of Falun Gong practitioners in China.
The fate of the case, revived by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2023, now rests with the Supreme Court, which in late April will hear Cisco’s bid to stave off the legal liability.
The Falun Gong plaintiffs, which includes a group of Chinese nationals and a U.S. citizen, urges the Supreme Court to allow the suit to move forward. The longstanding case, they argued, will test the United States’ commitment to protecting human rights around the world, especially religious freedom.
Left unchecked, the technology-powered suppression has been broadening over the years, with Christians and other groups at risk, plaintiffs say.
Successive U.S. administrations have pledged to advance this goal and deter Americans from facilitating human rights abuses abroad.
During the George W. Bush era, the State Department stressed the importance of U.S. companies promoting legal and ethical behavior and showing “respect for human rights and labor rights.”
The Obama administration endorsed the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which asks enterprises to avoid contributing to abuses through their operations or services.
During the first Trump administration, top officials declared it a priority to protect religious freedom and threatened minorities, creating an alliance dedicated to combating religious persecution worldwide.
The lawsuit offers the United States a chance to demonstrate its resolve in upholding that commitment, the plaintiffs said.
“When Americans or U.S. entities assist human rights abuses, they subvert U.S. foreign policy goals and risk fracturing U.S. relations with the global community,” they wrote in a March 20 brief.
Central to the case are aiding-and-abetting claims premised under two statues, the 1789 Alien Tort Statute and the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act, which hold a party accountable for supplying substantial assistance to another party’s misconduct.
By Eva Fu
