WOIPFG’s Investigation Report on the Chinese Communist Party’s Ambassador to Spain Lü Fan’s Interferences with Shen Yun Performances
Just a few weeks before the world-famous Shen Yun performance, which is often called “the world’s No. 1 show”, was about to take place at Teatro Real de Madrid (Royal Theatre of Madrid), the theater suddenly told Shen Yun’s local organizers that their show was “forced to [be] canceled” due to technical difficulties, according to the media report. (https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-regime-pressure-suspected-behind-shen-yun-show-cancelation-in-spain_2767321.html)
Since February 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts, with an aim to revive the traditional Chinese culture that had been destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has been performing simultaneously on five continents, allowing millions to experience the true divinely-bestowed traditional Chinese culture. However, the CCP sees Shen Yun as the largest threat to its dictatorship. For a long time, the CCP has been using its overseas embassies and consulates to interfere with Shen Yun Performing Arts in many different ways. WOIPFG has been tracking down and investigating such vicious incidents and has published a comprehensive investigation report on August 12, 2010. (http://www.upholdjustice.org/node/196)
In this regard, on January 22, 2019, an investigator from World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) phoned the Chinese Ambassador to Spain, Lü Fan, pretending to be a high rank Chinese official. The investigation confirmed that the cancellation of the theater’s contract with the Shen Yun organizers was entirely the result of the CCP’s interferences.
Ambassador Lü Fan admitted on the phone:
Lü Fan personally put pressure on the theater to cancel the contract with Shen Yun Performing Arts. By using the CCP’s control of the large Chinese market as enticement, Lü Fan and the theater’s director jointly planned to cancel the Shen Yun performances under the pretext of technical difficulties. The CCP’s embassy and the theater are worried that the incident would be learned by more people. After the incident was exposed by the Spanish media, they continue to discuss the countermeasures.
The following phone conversation transcript shows the results of our preliminary investigation conducted on January 22, 2019, on the interferences from Lü Fan, the CCP’s Ambassador to Spain, with the performances of Shen Yun Performing Arts in the Royal Theatre of Madrid.
(To listen MP3 with Chinese and English subtitles)
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Dialing tone...
Hello!
Investigator: Hello. Is that Ambassador Lü Fan, at the Chinese embassy to Spain?
Lü Fan: Yes, It’s me. It’s me.
Investigator: This is...
Lü Fan: Hello, how are you? How are you?
Investigator: How are you? This is the situation. We are writing a report to the Central Committee [of the Chinese Communist Party]. It’s about expanding our cultural influence overseas. We’ve heard that recently you successfully prevented Shen Yun from performing in Madrid. We think that it’s a great achievement that’s worthy to be set as an example. We’d like to include it in our report to our superiors. So, I’m calling to learn more from you. Which kind of efforts have you spent to achieve it? So later, we too, can receive recognition from our leaders [when reporting to them].
Lü Fan: Do you need this urgently or there is a deadline?
Investigator: It’s quite urgent. That’s why I’m calling you.
Lü Fan: Since we want to make sure everything gets settled, before we report back. So if you can wait for one or two days, then we can summarize the information and write a report to you.
Investigator: All right. But you can talk about it briefly first. So we can get an overview.
Lü Fan: Okay, sure! It was at the beginning of this year, January 3 or something, when we learned that they [Shen Yun] were going to be performing, and it’s at one of the top theaters in Madrid, at Teatro Real de Madrid. And Chairman Xi and his wife [Peng Liyuan] had just completed their state visit to Spain.
Investigator: Yes, I know about this.
Lü Fan: And this Teatro Real de Madrid is one of the places, where the queen accompanied Professor Peng [Liyuan] on her visit.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: And Shen Yun’s performance is scheduled after the visit. Since we knew [that they were going to have the performance there], we immediately contacted Teatro Real for verification.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: Meanwhile, we saw their ads and commercials.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: Then afterwards, the Falun Gong people [ran some ads] on some [digital] media, but not yet in print.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: They just did a promotion, but did it in a covert way, saying that the performance is promoting the traditional [Chinese] culture.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: They didn’t mention their [i.e. Falun Gong] contents at all.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: Upon learning about this situation, we immediately contacted the staff at Teatro Real. Actually, people were on holidays at that time in Spain. We weren’t able to reach them until after January 6. But before then, we already reached many of their staff members.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: We explained to them the harm [of hosting Shen Yun’s performances] and the consequences. They became very shocked.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: They vaguely thought that [Shen Yun performance] is about the Chinese culture, and that the First Lady of China had just visited them. So, [I think] they wanted to show their appreciation, something like that. (laughs)
Lü Fan: After they learned what we told them, they told us that they were in a dilemma. They said that they had already sold nearly 900 tickets online. [Cancelling the show] would result in a great loss of revenue. They said that they were in a dilemma.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: So later, I talked to their general manager in person. I told him not to think only about the financial income, but also the politics involved.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: [I told him,] “You started cooperating with China, by signing up for the Silk Road International League of Theaters a couple of years ago, so you have a great potential in the Chinese market in the future. You can’t afford losing the Chinese market because of this.” They immediately realized this issue, realized this problem. However, they also value their own…what do they call it…the reputation of their theater, because they had already promised [Shen Yun’s organizers]. If cancelling the show, there would be adverse effects. They had made a lot of preparations, too.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: At the same time, they didn’t want to cause a great stir about this, to taint itself with more politics. In the end, we discussed with them for a solution. We told them to use technical reasons [as the excuse], to say that since the venue was booked in a hurry, they didn’t think through the technical issues involved [at the time when they signed the contract]. So, due to technical reasons, they couldn’t provide the stage space in time for Shen Yun. Shen Yun had two days scheduled, one is January 31, and the other is February 1 with two shows on the same day. Altogether, they planned to have three shows.
Investigator: What about the theater’s attitude right now? Are they firm, or are they a little bit wavering?
Lü Fan: They are resolute right now. But yesterday, an article was published by a local media outlet, ABC, a national newspaper. [The article] says that Teatro Real cancelled Shen Yun’s shows due to the pressure from the Chinese government. They published an article like that.
Investigator: Okay.
Lü Fan: We are now discussing how to deal with it with the theatre. Our preliminary plan is to keep it as quiet as possible and [keep saying that] it’s due to technical reasons. Just do it like that. Is it okay for me to call you back later?
Investigator: Sure, okay.
Lü Fan: Sure.
Investigator: Okay. Thank you, bye.
WOIPFG’s investigation principle: Those who committed crimes should be brought to justice. Individuals should bear responsibility for their involvement in their organizations’ crimes, and those instigating the persecution should bear the same responsibility as those physically carrying out the persecution. According to this principle, and to safeguard human morality and conscience, the criminal conduct of all individuals within organizations, units and departments involved in the persecution, on the basis of national criminal law, will be thoroughly investigated and brought to justice.
We hereby warn those who have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong: The CCP is heading towards its dissolution, and the entire CCP organization will face legal trials for every single crime it has committed. The persecution of Falun Gong is a crime of genocide and crime against humanity! No one can be exempted by resorting to the excuse that he or she was following the orders from above. All those involved in the persecution will be held personally accountable. Moreover, the investigation and punishment of these culprits has no borders and is under the common jurisdiction of all mankind. Your only way out is to turn yourself in and confess, to expose the evil and to make efforts to perform merits to atone for your crimes!
The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) was founded on January 20, 2003. Our mission is to investigate the criminal conduct of all institutions, organizations and individuals involved in the persecution of Falun Gong; to bring such investigations, no matter how long it takes, no matter how far and deep we have to search, to full closure; to exercise fundamental principles of humanity; and to restore and uphold justice in society.
追查迫害法轮功国际组织
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
Tel: 1-347-448-5790; Fax: 1-347-402-1444
Mailing address: P.O. Box 84, New York, NY 10116, USA
Websites: http://www.upholdjustice.org, http://www.zhuichaguoji.org
