In recent years, the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has become increasingly popular around the world. Not only have their performances been highly successful, but they have also prominently displayed the beauty of “China Before Communism” to the world.
Portray of China Before Communism Frightens CCP
The performing arts group received three bomb threats in a span of eight days between March 14 and 22.On March 15, two of Shen Yun’s tour buses had their tires slashed in Costa Mesa, California. The tires were slashed in exactly the same way as in previous incidents: halfway through the rubber, so that the tire wouldn’t deflate but would explode while driving on the freeway.
Independent TV producer Li Jun said on the “Pinnacle View” program that the CCP’s vile tactics against Shen Yun have never stopped for many years.
According to Mr. Li, initially, the CCP and its overseas consulates sent emails to smear Shen Yun, targeting members of parliament and government officials, including some American businessmen and entrepreneurs, urging them not to attend Shen Yun’s performances.
“The CCP achieved the opposite result—Americans became even more interested in the performances,” Mr. Li said. “After seeing them, many thought they were excellent and praised the Shen Yun performers. The CCP’s interference ultimately backfired, because the more they tried to smear, the more people wanted to watch the show.”
He went on to say that after this tactic failed, the CCP tried to bribe and deceive the theater managers, but since the theater managers also had their own connections and it was impossible to bribe them all, they thought, “Why shouldn’t I host such a good performance when other theaters are making money from it? So, this tactic also failed in the end.
“The reason why the CCP spends so much money and hires so many people to do these despicable acts is because they are afraid of Shen Yun. The dance group shows the true traditional Chinese culture before communism, enlightening many Westerners and even Chinese audiences to the beauty of China before the CCP, making the Chinese feel proud of their magnificent and splendid culture,” Mr. Li explained.
Guo Jun, president of the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times, said on “Pinnacle View” that the CCP has committed many acts of thuggery and intimidation, and similar incidents have frequently occurred in Hong Kong, including bombings.
“There have been many terrible crimes in the past; for example, Hong Kong journalists have been slashed with knives, kidnapped, and these incidents occurred even before the handover in 1997 and became worse after that year,” she said.
The Epoch Times had its previous printing plant in Hong Kong vandalized and set on fire several times. It is one of the few media outlets in the former British colony that is not afraid to criticize the CCP.
According to Ms. Guo, the CCP resorts to these evil acts because it feels that the exposure of its shameful acts in the past has damaged its reputation, which poses a serious threat to its regime.
“Before the 1980s, the CCP was more restrained and tried not to commit overt illegal acts in other countries, even in Hong Kong. But they have become more and more blatant, especially in the last 20 years, and have taken more and more unscrupulous actions, even in places like Hong Kong, where they have complete control, and still resort to these thuggish methods that have no moral limits,” Ms. Guo said.
“For more than a decade, Shen Yun has enjoyed tremendous success, and now, with eight companies touring the globe simultaneously, their influence is further broadening,” she continued. “The performance showcases China before the ‘invasion of communism,’ including content that reveals the evil and ugliness of the CCP, which the CCP finds truly frightening. The CCP thought that it had completely destroyed Chinese traditional culture, China’s cultural genes, and even Chinese cultural relics through the Cultural Revolution, believing that it could brainwash the Chinese people at will with its Party culture. However, they never expected Shen Yun to be able to truly revive Chinese traditional culture.”
CCP’s Hooliganism in Dealing With Democratic Activists
Sheng Xue, a well-known Chinese author and a pro-democracy activist living in Toronto, Canada, stated on “Pinnacle View” that the CCP is now showing clear signs of decline, marked by extreme fear permeating the entire CCP officialdom.“This fear is driving grassroots and middle-level officials to make even greater efforts to seize their means of survival and opportunities for advancement. I do not believe that any individual would have such a motive or need to intimidate Shen Yun, an art performance group. It is absolutely the CCP instigating from behind,” she said.
Ms. Sheng revealed that she has personally been subjected to the CCP’s oppressive tactics for a long time.
“I joined the pro-democracy movement in 1989, and just over 20 days after arriving in Canada, I began my activism, and that’s when the intimidation began. First, the CCP sent me pornographic pictures and then wrote my name in men’s restrooms in Toronto’s Chinatown. In the years that followed, the focus was on insult, intimidation, and defamation, using every tool at their disposal. They had a team that published about 700 to 800 articles and three books [to smear my reputation]. They even published my phone number in online ads, including in several major cities in Canada and the eastern United States, claiming that I offered legal services, which resulted in me receiving a large number of phone calls. Later, someone stood in front of Parliament Hill in Canada for five months, handing out leaflets to all the MPs going in and out of the Canadian Parliament, claiming that I was a CCP spy, and posting my photo all over the streets and on the poles next to the Canadian Parliament. Eventually, I went to the police, and they called this person in for questioning. He claimed he was very busy and left the police station after ten minutes. Then he sued me in the Ontario Supreme Court, claiming 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.3 million) in damages and accusing me of being a murderer. These actions really show that the CCP can do such things. They have no bottom line,” she said.
According to Ms. Sheng, the CCP also targeted her husband, her elder brother, younger sister, and uncle, attempting to intimidate her entire family.
There used to be a large number of overseas Chinese dissidents, but the number has declined over the years. Ms. Sheng explained that this is because the CCP has been threatening and seducing them one by one. In the end, only a few held out to the end.
“Overseas dissidents and overseas liberal intellectuals are a thorn in the side of the CCP, and the CCP will surely use all sorts of methods to suppress them. When I came to Canada in 1989, I found the atmosphere of the overseas pro-democracy movement to be very encouraging. For example, in Australia, there were several thousand people in one organization called the Democratic China Front at that time. But nowadays, the number of people in the pro-democracy movement has really decreased, and there is a great loss of people. It is slowly becoming clear that the CCP is really targeting them one by one,” she said.
Based on her own experience and her observation, she found out that the CCP uses a systematic approach to silence pro-democracy activists abroad. They start with threats, then try to buy people off with seemingly attractive opportunities. If that fails, they target the activist’s family. This relentless pressure, often using covert tactics, makes it hard for activists to maintain normal lives and careers, leading some to quit the movement altogether.
Fortunately, the CCP is beginning to lose its ability to control Chinese people living abroad.
‘A Villain Resorts to Depravity in the Face of Hardship’
Ms. Guo pointed out that the CCP has never been able to solve the problem of the legitimacy of its power, including the aspect of its artistic form, which does not represent Chinese traditional culture at all. Nor can its legitimacy stand the test of moral and legal principles derived from Chinese tradition.“Therefore, the regime always feels insecure, and this intense and continuous feeling has turned it into a phobia that sees everything as a threat to its regime and everything as a security problem. This situation has become more and more serious in recent years,” she said.
After barely reaching a point of moderate prosperity, China’s economy is getting worse and worse. And the whole world is encircling and suppressing the CCP. Ms. Guo believes it is these reasons that have caused the CCP’s phobia to explode once again.
“Ancient Chinese had a saying, ‘A gentleman remains principled in poverty, while a villain resorts to depravity in the face of hardship.’ This means that when faced with extreme difficulties, a gentleman still adheres to his principles; but a villain is capable of anything. That is to say, the worse the situation, the more despicable their methods become,” Ms. Guo said.
