Theaters in both Atlanta and San Jose have been targeted with a mass shooting threat if they proceed with performances by Shen Yun, a New York-based arts group that has long been targeted by the Chinese communist regime.
The threatening messages, viewed by The Epoch Times, followed a series of similar threats directed at Shen Yun and venues hosting its performance earlier this year, all of which ended up being unfounded.
Organizers have reported these threats to local police departments and the FBI in both cities. The Epoch Times reached out to the Atlanta Police Department and the San Jose Police Department and did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The first message targeting Atlanta Symphony Hall was received by the local organizer on Dec. 11.
The messages, written in Chinese, threatened that attackers would break into the venue and conduct a mass shooting if the Shen Yun performances continued as scheduled. The email contains an image of a pistol and dozens of bullets, with the subject line stating, “Atlanta Symphony Hall hosts Shen Yun will be attacked!!!”
Organizers in Atlanta suspected the latest threat was part of the longtime campaign by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Shen Yun, which presents traditional Chinese culture without communism through classical dance and live music.
On the same day, a similar mass shooting threat targeting the San Jose Performing Arts Center was received by the ticketing service for the San Francisco Bay Area. The email threatened to “shoot everyone” on sight if the venue “dares to host Shen Yun’s performance.”
During Shen Yun’s 2024 global tour earlier in the year, the group encountered several sabotage incidents targeting its tour buses, slashing their tires, and a series of false threats against the company and theaters.
All these threats have turned out to be empty. In one incident, while the arts group was setting up at a California venue for its performances in March, a false bomb threat was received. The venue was evacuated, and police, assisted by a K-9 team, found no explosives. The shows proceeded as scheduled but with heightened security.
Shen Yun is scheduled to kick off this year’s global tour in Atlanta on Dec. 23, followed by several performances in San Jose beginning on Dec. 26.
The CCP’s persistent efforts to censor the New York performing arts group have raised concerns in Congress.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), condemned the intimidation as “totally illegal,” calling for stronger action against the CCP’s attempts to go after its targets on American soil.
The congressman told The Epoch Times that he would reintroduce his legislative proposal aimed at combating transnational repression in the upcoming year.
“This is an example of transnational repression, but it’s very serious,” Piero Tozzi, a staff director at the CECC, told The Epoch Times.
Escalating Campaign
Concerns are growing about the CCP’s campaign to silence dissenting voices beyond its borders, especially after revelations of a secret directive from Xi Jinping, the Party’s top leader.
On Dec. 6, The Epoch Times reported that at a high-level meeting in October 2022, Xi personally ordered a new strategy aimed at targeting Falun Gong, deeming past attempts to suppress the faith group largely ineffective. The new campaign is multifaceted, including leveraging legal battles in the United States and orchestrating a disinformation campaign through social media influencers and some Western media outlets, which outwardly appear independent of the regime.
Among the top targets is Shen Yun. Many of Shen Yun’s artists practice Falun Gong, an ancient meditative discipline that consists of moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It has been brutally targeted by the communist regime since 1999, after an estimated 70 million to 100 million people took up the practice, outpacing the CCP’s membership.
Over the past 25 years, people who refused to give up their faith faced lengthy imprisonment, mental and physical torture, and even forced organ harvesting. Some of Shen Yun’s performances depict scenes from the ongoing persecution campaign of Falun Gong.
In addition to threats and attacks, the CCP has sought to pressure venues and government officials to cancel Shen Yun’s performance, with more than 100 cases spanning 38 countries being documented by the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC), a nonprofit monitoring the persecution of Falun Gong.
In certain regions, such attempts have appeared to be somewhat effective, such as in South Korea, where the CCP’’s influence looms large.
Jared Madsen, a Shen Yun master of ceremonies, said the CCP feels “threatened by our whole program.”
“We’re showing 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture, and you see divine beings on stage. We have a digital backdrop where they seem to come out of the heavens and then come to life on stage,” Madsen previously told The Epoch Times.
“That runs exactly counter to communist principles and their atheist ideas. That is what threatens them the most.”
Sherry Dong contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
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