On July 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that two ethnic Chinese men had pled guilty to acting as agents of the Chinese regime attempting to sabotage the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts.
According to the court proceedings, the two Chinese men had tried to bribe an undercover U.S. agent, whom they thought was an IRS official, with the purpose of revoking Shen Yun’s nonprofit organization status. This is the first time that Shen Yun was named as the targeted organization in the case, a fact that was revealed by prosecutors at the court hearing.
We agree with U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, who said this case is a part of “malicious transnational repression attempts by foreign influences on American soil.”
We sincerely thank the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney, and everyone who worked on this case for catching these CCP agents and bringing them to justice.
Just the Tip of the Iceberg
These two agents and their actions represent a mere fraction of the overall attack. For 18 years, we have reported on how the Chinese Communist Party has been trying to interfere with our company. We have documented the regime’s wide range of tactics aimed at canceling our performances and ultimately dictating what Americans and people around the world can and cannot watch.
Ever since Shen Yun’s founding in New York in 2006, the CCP has seen Shen Yun as a threat. Our company’s mission is to revive genuine traditional culture, the same heritage that the communist regime has spent the last 75 years working to destroy. By showing, as our tagline says, “China before communism,” we are also allowing the world and Chinese people to envision a China without communism.
Moreover, as part of telling the stories of five thousand years of Chinese civilization, our performances include tales from modern-day China, including about the persecution of people who practice Falun Dafa and their peaceful resistance. These are also stories the CCP does not want the world to see.
And so, the CCP has targeted our company with a relentless, global campaign of intimidation, coercion, and thuggery. CCP diplomats, United Front organizations, and secret agents have been threatening theaters and elected officials with economic and diplomatic reprisals should scheduled Shen Yun performances be allowed to take place. They have spread disinformation attacking Shen Yun through paid ads in major newspapers, hired online commenters, and emails to theater managers. They have repeatedly slashed the tires of the buses that carry our performers, threatened and imprisoned our artists’ relatives back in China, and recently even sent evidently fake bomb threats to theaters in California, Florida, Canada, and France, as well as Shen Yun headquarters in New York.
Over 130 such incidents of interference in 38 countries have been recorded, according to a January 2024 special report by the Falun Dafa Information Center.
To No Avail
In the vast majority of cases, the CCP’s illicit actions fail. Indeed, theaters and local officials worldwide have shown great integrity by standing up to the bullying, honoring their contracts, and doing no less than protecting everyone’s freedoms.
At Shen Yun, too, we have overcome these challenges and resisted the constant pressure. In spite of the CCP breathing down our necks, we have grown from one to eight equally large companies that tour the world simultaneously. Each year, we perform for more than a million people in over 200 cities across five continents.
New Tactics
As its schemes have failed and now some of its agents arrested, the CCP has recently changed tactics. According to credible reports from China, several CCP organizations have been instructed to throw their full support behind a number of Chinese social media influencers to attack Shen Yun Performing Arts. There is also evidence of coordination between some individuals supporting these influencers and a few Western journalists.
It appears the CCP is now attempting to manipulate public opinion in America and around the globe. Since it has been unable to get our shows canceled, it has now set its sights on convincing people not to attend them.
Yet, we believe that just as the CCP underestimated the integrity of many government leaders and theater owners, it has also underestimated the ability of freethinking people to see through this latest ruse.
Our company was built from the ground up, mostly by first-generation immigrants in New York’s beautiful Hudson River Valley. We are grateful to call America our home, and will not be swayed by thuggery in whatever form it may take, in the U.S. or around the world. Whether the CCP is slashing our bus tires, spying on us, or inciting people to disparage us online or in the media, we will not be deterred.
We believe, with every fiber of our being, that what humankind needs right now is a message of hope and the inspiration to be compassionate to each other. And through our performances, that is precisely what we will continue to deliver to people around the world.
