Investigative Report How the Chinese Communist Regime Tried to Sabotage Shen Yun Shows

Foreword

After Shen Yun Performing Arts staged seven successful shows in New York's Radio City Music Hall in February 2006, the Broadway magazine Billboard listed Shen Yun as one of the seven top shows in the United States. In the next few years, Shen Yun has built up her reputation through its world tours and created a great sensation in mainstream society and among overseas Chinese. Shen Yun has enabled people to break long-term ideological shackles the Communist Party culture and brainwashing had subjected them to, so that they are able to appreciate true, traditional Chinese divinely-inspired culture. Shen Yun performances contain messages about freedom of belief, human rights and the persecution of Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views as the biggest threat to its dictatorship.

The dictatorial regime's embassies and consulates have worked closely with the 610 Office and used various tactics to try to prevent people from watching Shen Yun shows. These methods include harassments of the shows' sponsors, massive phone calls to disrupt ticket-selling hotlines, threatening overseas Chinese communities, writing defamatory letters to VIPs, and pretending to be Falun Gong practitioners. To increase their overseas propaganda, the CCP’s Central 610 Office created an anti-Falun Gong “professional website” in July 2006, called kaiwind.com. [1] The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has carried out an investigation into this incident. The investigation report focuses primarily on and reveals the facts how the 610 Office and the Communist regime embassies and consulates tried to sabotage Shen Yun shows.

1. Kaiwind.com hosted by 610 Office is the main source of defamatory articles against Shen Yun

Following the creation of kaiwind.com in Chinese language in July 2006, seven websites in English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Korean and Japanese languages were also established since October 2007.

According to incomplete statistics, in the last four years, the so-called “open to all Chinese around the world” website “Kaiwind.com” has published more than 230 articles (including reprinted ones) to defame Shen Yun shows. [4] Most of these unscrupulously abusive and slanderous articles were from anti-cult associations writing teams at various levels, and from members of the 610 Office, under the following names: reporter Li Jie (厉 洁), correspondent Yi Jiayan (易家言) and writers: Chen Jingyuan (陈景远), Jiang Tao (江涛), Zhang Zhongde (张仲德), Yu Jun (余军), Dan Lin (丹琳), Baoshansi (宝善寺), Baiyizi (白衣子), Chu Jun (楚钧), Shuangr Ren (霜刃), Luo Zhijun (骆志军), Gang Jianwei (刚健为), Tai Ran (泰然), Qin Feng (秦风), Lu Guoliang (卢国梁), Hai Bo (海波), Zheng Yi (郑怡), Xu Yan (许言), Bu Xin (卜心), Hao Ran (皓然), Tian Ming (天鸣), Mu Yi (沐呓), Li Fen (李芬)(translator and editor), Xu Qiang (translator and editor), Ai Zhang (艾章) (translator and editor), Nanhuaiyin (南怀隐) (translator and editor) , Zhang He (张鹤) blog, Xiangrui (相瑞) blog.

A  “Statement of the Embassy of the PRC in the USA” published on the website of the Chinese embassy to defame the 2007 “Chinese New Year Spectacular” hosted by NTDTV made it very clear that the source of the article was kaiwind.com. [5]

Kaiwind.com and the Chinese embassies and consulates [7] also reprinted several articles from the "Western media" that relayed/quoted the views of the CCP embassies and overseas Chinese community leaders, as representative views of the “mainstream” Western media and audiences, and repeatedly published them on the Internet, to confuse people and to fabricate so-called international public opinion to deceive people in China.

2. List of the CCP embassies and consulates as well as individual diplomats that participated in the disruption and sabotage of Shen Yun shows

Europe

The CCP Consulate-General in Munich

Mr. Helmut Pauli, managing director of the Tonicale Concert Agency said on March 19, 2008 during an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the regime consulate in Munich tried to force him to cancel the Shen Yun show. Sueddeutsche Zeitung is one of the major daily Munich newspapers. Vice consul Wang Yanmin threatened him, that if he did not cancel the show, he would never get a visa to China in the future and all their business with partners in China would be affected. Mr. Pauli told the reporter, “I won’t be pushed around by this. The show will go ahead. We are living in a free country.” Sueddeutsche Zeitung exposed the plot of the regime consulate in Munich in their report entitled, “The Chinese regime government wants to stop the show.”

Munich Daily reported on March 20, 2008 the regime consulate's pressure on local performance company, entitled, "Threat from the Far East."

The following is part of the investigation, showing the regime consulate’s interference with the Shen Yun show. [9]

Investigator: Are you vice consul Wang? I’m … I would like to inquire about something. How is it going with your effort to stop the Chinese Spectacular in Munich?
Wang Yanmin: "We particularly went to see the relevant company in charge of cooperation with the
show and talked to them about it, …and will try to let them give it up at this end.

Investigator: What other measures have you taken besides this?
Wang Yanmin: (We) have notified all the overseas Chinese and students not to attend any relevant activities. Overseas Chinese leaders and presidents of student associations have all expressed they would pass on the message to every Chinese. This is mainly what we have done so far.

Investigator: ……
Wang Yanmin: From what we have learned from the company…, mainly we talked with the leader, … we strongly request you to give it up, cancel this event. I said as long as you take a step further, if you insist on doing so, to cooperate with Falun Gong, then we will be hard on you. In future you won’t get any cooperation from us, either official or non-official, including all show business cooperation. …Of course, when I talk to their manager today, I will be even harder on him. … first, we will notify all overseas Chinese that we won’t attend your event; secondly, naturally, as for all your business activities with China in the future, don’t expect to get any cooperation. We can inform all organizations in China about you, requesting them not to involve you in any relevant activities. In addition, we will take further measures, meaning to put you on a blacklist… you will need to consider the consequences for all of these; do you still want to cooperate with China or not? I will be even harsher when I talk to him."
Investigator: …what about the government?

Wang Yanmin: "Actually, in terms of this show…, no matter what my view is, we will clearly bring it up with the government so that government officials won’t attend such activities, and we will also tell them about the nature of Falun Gong, we will tell them our requests…."

The CCP Consulate-General in Frankfurt

The CCP Consulate-General in Frankfurt sent letters to the Governor’s Office of the State of Hessen and consulates of other countries on January 6, 2009, to defame Shen Yun Performing Arts by way of diplomatic correspondence. [8]

Photocopy of the letter sent by the CCP Consulate-General in Frankfurt

The CCP Embassy in Denmark

Denmark State TV (DR), the largest, with the highest audience rating, broadcast a 40-minute long program at 9:00 pm on March 18, 2008  entitled “Danish theater under pressure from Chinese Communist regime” (Kinesisk pres på Danmark i teatersag), in which it reported that the Danish State Opera House was going to stage a Shen Yun Spectacular arriving from the USA during the Easter Holiday, to showcase traditional Chinese culture. Officials from the Chinese embassy went to Danish Foreign Ministry on December 7, 2007 to exert pressure on the Danish government, requesting cancellation of the show. Due to the pressure from the regime embassy, the Danish Royal Opera House officials unilaterally cancelled the performance.

The CCP Embassy in Sweden

On January 26, 2008, media reports by Daily News (DNr) in Sweden and Corren stated that after receiving information that Shen Yun Performing Arts will come to perform in Stockholm and Linkoping at the end of March 2008, on Friday (January 25), Johan Lundgren, a government official in the cultural department received a phone call from the CCP embassy. Johan Lundgren stated, “The caller who said he was an official from the Chinese consulate requested for us to cancel the show and said if we don’t, the relationship between Linkoping and China will be affected.” Johan Lundgren, “It’s obvious that they wanted to put pressure on us. I told them we could not cancel the show. I didn’t ask what he meant by saying that the bilateral relationship would be affected, but his language showed there is no human rights in China.” [10]

Photocopy of the report by DNr on January 26, 2008

Photocopy of the report by Corren on January 26, 2008

The United States

The CCP Consulate-General in Los Angeles, Consul Zhou Xiaomei in the Political Press

In January 2004, Zhou Xiaomei, an official with the CCP Consulate-General in Los Angeles sent letters to law school professors at various campuses, requesting them not to accept any interview by NTDTV regarding the Chinese New Year Global Gala. [11]

In December 2007, the CCP Consulate-General in Los Angeles sent a letter to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, warning them not to support the Chinese New Year Gala in any form, because the show had support from Falun Gong practitioners. Chairman Chris Norby of the Orange County Board of Supervisors openly protested the pressure from the Chinese consulate on the Los Angeles Times, stating “Your request is an insult to me; of course I would not accept it.” On January 3, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported  this incident with the title: "O.C. official 'insulted' by letter from Chinese government." [12]

CCP Consulate-General in Chicago

On December 23, 2008, the Consulate General in Chicago published an anonymous article on its website, intentionally inciting hatred toward the Shen Yun Performance and distorting “ (Shen Yun’s) objection toward the CCP’s destruction of traditional Chinese culture” into “anti-China.” [13]

CCP Consulate General in Houston,Consul General Qiao Hong

On December 23, 2007, the Epoch Times received a letter from Fort Lauderdale mayor Mr. Jim Naugle, making public the letter addressed to him by Consul General Qiao Hong from the CCP Consulate General in Houston. In the letter, Qiao Hong threatened Mr. Naugle that if he supported the Holiday Wonders hosted by NTDTV, his “personal reputation” would be negatively affected. Qiao Hong’s letter was dated December 4, 2007, bearing Qiao Hong’s Chinese signature. [14] The beginning of this letter indicated in bold letters its intention - to make reference to the Holiday Wonders that would be hosted by NTDTV on December 27 and 28 in the Broward Center for the Performing Arts Au Rene Theater.

Photocopy of the threatening letter sent by the Consulate General in Houston to the mayor of Fort Lauderdale	the Chinese signature of Consul General in Houston Qiao Hong

In late January of 2010, in Little Rock, Arkansas, before Shen Yun started its grand performance in the best local theater, The Robinson Center Music Hall, the theater unveiled a letter from the Consulate General in Houston discrediting Shen Yun.

That 13-page slanderous letter, in addition to discrediting Shen Yun to be “damaging the Sino-American relationship,” “destroying the stability of China,” “subverting the Chinese government,” “spreading anti-Chinese propaganda,” “distorting Chinese culture,” and so on, stated to the theater that “if Shen Yun’s host asks to rent your theater or asks you for sponsorship, you will say ‘no.’” A staff member from the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau commented that as this letter didn’t have any signature or date it didn’t seem to be an official, formal letter. [16] Also, it was sent non-priority mail, which was very “low-key.”

This act by the Consulate General was extremely ridiculous and indicated that the consulate was nervous.

CCP Embassy in the Washington DC

In December 2007, the manager of the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, Maryland, received harassing phone calls from the regime embassy. [17]

On February 25, 2008, the regime embassy in Thailand published on its website the “Statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in the United States on May 12, 2006,” reproduced from 610 Office’s Kaiwind.com. This statement slandered the Chinese New Year Gala hosted by NTDTV in Washington D.C. in 2007.

Between February 11 and 15 in year 2009, Shen Yun Performing Arts gave presentation in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. On January 14, 2009, Kaiwind.com published an article dated January 7, 2009, with the author being “Chinese Embassy in the United States.” This article discredited the Shen Yun performance segments exhibiting freedom of religion, human rights and the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners as “anti-China propaganda,” thus making it sound as if “China” and “Communist Party” are one and the same. [18]

Between January 19 and 24, 2010, Shen Yun Performing Arts performed again in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Prior to Shen Yun’s arrival, the CCP Embassy in Washington DC published articles to discredit Shen Yun. The contents of these articles were basically copied from the article published by Kaiwind.com in 2009. These articles painstakingly urged “people from all walks of life who like Chinese culture” to go to Kaiwind.com, an anti-Falun Gong, multilingual website, to “learn more about Falun Gong.” They attempted to further brainwash people with lies and hate propaganda, and to prevent people from learning about traditional Chinese culture through Shen Yun performances that are not tainted by the Communist Party culture. [19]

CCP Consulate General in New York

On December 11, 2007, New York Assemblyman Michael Benjamin received an anonymous fax from the Consulate General in New York, threatening him with [deteriorating] “Sino-American relations” and exhorted him to not “support” Holiday Wonders or the Chinese New Year Gala in any way. [20]

Prior to Shen Yun’s performance in January 2009 at NJPAC Theater in New Jersey, for several days in a row the theater’s woman director received phone calls from the Consulate General in New York, threatening the theater to not allow Shen Yun to perform there. Reaching her tolerance level, the director called the consulate to tell consul general Keyu Peng: “America is not China. As long as procedures are followed and requirements are met, everyone has the right to rent a theater.” She told him to not interfere again. [21]

Canada

In January 2004, the Consulate General in Toronto wrote letters to the local government officials, demanding them to not send congratulatory letters to any major events hosted by NTDTV, or to be interviewed by the TV station. [22]

Consul General Xinjian Wu from the CCP Consulate General in Calgary, Canada

Consul General Xinjian Wu in Calgary even visited Travel Alberta International (TAI) in person, to demand the president of TAI to cancel the company’s sponsorship to Shen Yun. He threatened the president of TAI, “Otherwise, the business your travel company has with China will be affected. You will meet with troubles when you apply for a visa to go to China.” [23] Previously, extremely eager to sponsor Shen Yun Performing Arts, at the last stage of negotiation, on April 11, 2008, TAI e-mailed the host of Shen Yun performances in Calgary, the NTDTV’s Alberta branch, to inform them, “Since TAI received pressure from the CCP’s consul general Xinjian Wu, it had to cancel its support for Shen Yun.” [24]

Australia

On February 18, 2006, the Global Chinese New Year Gala hosted by NTDTV took place in Sydney's famous State Theater. On December 14, 2005, the Consulate General in Sydney had sent defamatory letters to councils of all levels of government, demanding them to “not accept invitations by NTDTV” to the show. The letterhead displayed the Consulate General in Sydney, from where the letter was sent, but the letters were unsigned and missing the consulate's official seal.

The copy of the letter sent by the Consulate General in Sydney to officials at all levels of the Australian government

On March 28, 2007, Australia’s national TV station ABC’s well-respected news and current affairs program “Lateline” reported in prime time about NTDTV New Year’s Gala that was going to take place on March 29. It also disclosed the interferences the gala had encountered from the CCP’s Consulate General in Sydney. Lateline’s trump anchor Tony Jones explained that the CCP’s diplomats in Australia demanded of Australian politicians to not attend a Chinese New Year's gala. The program aired the letter sent by the CCP’s Consul General in Sydney to Australian government officials. [25]

Australian news and current affairs program ABC – Lateline’s file photo from the Internet

Malaysia

On March 17, 2008, an English-language newspaper in Malaysia, Malay Mail, published a large-scale report, accurately detailing how the CCP pressured the government of Malaysia into taking the unilateral action of cancelling Shen Yun’s performances scheduled in Malaysia.

When interviewed by a journalist from Malay Mail, the spokesperson of the regime embassy in Malaysia denied of pressuring the Ministry of Culture, or forcing Malaysia to cancel the license of Shen Yun’s performances. But he admitted of communicating with the Malaysian Ministry of Culture in regard to Shen Yun. The spokesperson for the Malaysian Ministry of Culture admitted that the CCP embassy had contacted them in regards to this matter. [26]

The CCP Consulate General in Chicago published an article attacking and slandering Shen Yun performances on January 8, 2009. Comments from a Malaysian government official were cited in this article, “The Malaysian government cancelled the shows of Shen Yun Performing Arts originally scheduled to take place on March 22 and 23, 2008. The ministry cancelled the performances because the Chinese embassy in Malaysia was against the organizer of the performances – the United States-based NTDTV.” [27]

Conclusion

After being founded in China, the communist regime positioned itself to be the enemy of Chinese traditional culture. In order to destroy this 5,000-year-old ancient culture by inciting people’s hatred toward it, the regime unleashed propaganda to discredit Chinese divinely bestowed culture as “feudal superstition,” “ignorant and backward,” and “the target of communist revolution.” [28]

Having used armed violence to usurp state power in China in 1949, the CCP wasted no time and immediately began to promote “socialist culture” guided by Soviet-directed Marx-Leninist ideology and the regime’s dictating will. [29] In early 1966, CCP leader Mao Zedong launched the “Cultural Revolution” to completely destroy Chinese traditional culture. During the same time period, since the CCP forcibly tried to export “revolution” to other countries, it provoked diplomatic conflicts with nearly 30 countries. As a result the regime’s “World Revolution” was forced to a halt. [30]

Afterwards, Yanping Xu, a professor in the Strategic Research Office in University for National Defense and a part-time professor of the International Affairs Research Office at Tsinghua University stated, “How can a country summon people to carry out revolutions in other countries? Isn’t this severely interfering in other countries’ internal politics and subverting the governments in other countries? How can (the CCP) manage to have good relationships with other countries under these circumstances?” [31] Obviously, the communist regime learned that by using the method of “cultural revolution” to have a “united world front” was a strategic mistake.

In 1978, China started to become “open to the outside world.” Its domestic market’s large demand has excited the entire world. Many “profit-oriented” people try all kind of means to profit from it. Their mentality exactly panders to and connives the regime’s mean ambition of exporting its values to the outside world. This ambition is being inflated to the extreme, a situation that has intensified in recent years.

The CCP disregards diplomatic conventions and unscrupulously uses its embassies, diplomats and spy networks to sabotage and interfere with the performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts on a global scale. This serves as a typical example of the communist’s vitriolic ambition. The CCP’s strategy is to use economic benefits to seduce and force the people from the West to relinquish their morals and value, thus shattering the Western countries’ illusion of improving human rights and freedom of speech in China through means of commercial activities.

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World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong

Tel：1-347-448-5790；Fax：1-347-402-1444；
Mail Address：P.O. Box 84， New york, NY 10116
Website： http://www.upholdjustice.org/, http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/