The transnational threat campaign follows years of CCP pressure to interfere with the performing arts group’s global tour.
Taiwanese authorities suspect that some of the most recent bomb threats targeting New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts are linked to a research entity of Chinese tech giant Huawei, The Epoch Times has learned.
The classical Chinese dance company, founded by Chinese artists living in the United States, showcases Chinese civilization before communist rule. It has faced dozens of violent threats since March 2024, during its global touring season.
In Taiwan, government offices and hosting venues in several cities recently have received at least 17 emails threatening explosions or mass shootings, aimed at stopping the performances.
The senders have used a jump host to make it appear that the emails came from countries such as France, the United States, and elsewhere.
Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau said that through a multiagency investigation, it has traced the emails back to Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province in central China. The emails appear to have originated from a location near the Huawei Xi’an Institute, a research center of the company that now plays a key role in aiding Beijing’s global tech ambitions, Taiwanese authorities confirmed.
The organization, situated in a state-level high-tech development zone, has become a prime suspect in Taiwan’s investigation. Taiwanese authorities pointed to the institute as the most consequential entity in the vicinity; they also did not rule out the possibility that Chinese state-funded internet trolls—also known as the “50 Cent Army”—were behind the campaign.
A spokesperson for the bureau told The Epoch Times that it has shared the details with mainland authorities but received no response.
Huawei did not reply to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
The threat emails have often contained graphic details, sometimes including photos of a gun or other items to further demonstrate their intent. No actual harm has materialized so far, but at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and theaters in other countries, the threats have led to the venues being evacuated ahead of the scheduled shows and canine units being called in to search the sites.
Taiwanese authorities said the intimidation fits the pattern of efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to interfere with normal functions in the democratic-ruling island, and they have called for local government agencies to be on heightened alert. They said they have enhanced security measures and are closely communicating with organizations that have reported such incidents.
Both the White House and the U.S. State Department in recent months have condemned the intimidation campaign targeting Shen Yun.
Besides showcasing the authentic Chinese culture that prevailed before communism in China, Shen Yun’s performances include segments depicting the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, whose practitioners have been targeted for their faith since 1999. For more than a quarter century, practitioners of the faith group, whose core principles are truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, have been illegally arrested and detained and have experienced abuses such as sexual assault and forced drug injection. They are a primary target for the regime’s forced organ harvesting program.
Since Shen Yun’s founding in New York state in 2006, Chinese diplomats have exerted political and economic pressure on Shen Yun’s hosting venues in an attempt to get performances canceled. After Shen Yun’s tour bus tires were slashed multiple times, the company hired security to watch its buses at all hours. It believes that Chinese agents were behind the incidents.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who co-launched the congressional Victims of Communism Caucus on April 10 to honor those killed under communism, said the threats to Shen Yun highlight the importance of the legislative group.
“We want to make sure that we get the word out that communists across this country are not only not in the majority, but are representative of failed states,” she told The Epoch Times.
“They oppress their people; they are a lie.
“Everything about the Chinese Communist regime is built on a lie and built on government control.”
Part of the goal of the caucus, she said, is to ensure that cultural groups such as Shen Yun are able “to continue to really show the vibrancy of the Chinese people.”
“If they had an opportunity to reject communism, [they] would be able to live in freedom,” Schultz said.
The findings from Taiwanese authorities are a step forward in countering similar transnational repression operations, according to Sarah Cook, an independent researcher who has decades of experience on human rights issues.
“[The discoveries show that] there are tools that would allow law enforcement agencies to trace these kinds of threats back to China, even if the perpetrator is using a VPN,” she told The Epoch Times, referring to encrypted virtual private networks, which enable users to mask their real IP addresses.
“I would hope that the U.S. and other governments would use those, given the number of threats that Shen Yun and Falun Gong have been facing outside of Taiwan.”
Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, has been tracking such threats over the past year. He urged U.S. and Taiwanese officials to continue investigating the issue and hold the perpetrators to account.
“This behavior is dangerous, illegal, and aims to silence the very artistic expression the CCP doesn’t want the world to see,” he said in a statement. “It must be stopped.”
Frank Fang and the Taiwan bureau of The Epoch Times contributed to this report.