The New York company has been facing fake bomb threats and disinformation amid global tours to bring back traditional Chinese culture predating communism.
The Chinese regime’s growing campaign to suppress a New York-based performing arts firm is tantamount to unrestricted warfare, according to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).
“They fight on every single inch of the battlefield,” Perry told The Epoch Times, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
Unrestricted warfare is a doctrine that leverages all available nonmilitary means to subdue an enemy. Under such tactics, China is taking advantage of the U.S. judicial system and the freedom of the media, Perry added.
Shen Yun showcases dance and music performances under the tagline “China before communism.” The company was founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong—a faith group brutally persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999—and has been a target of the CCP since.
Over the past year, the regime’s effort targeting Shen Yun has escalated significantly, with dozens of bomb and death threats aimed at intimidating theaters that host Shen Yun performances along with the company’s training facilities in upstate New York. Following a secret directive from top leadership in Beijing, Chinese agents in the United States have tried to bribe the IRS to open a probe against Shen Yun. They also went to Orange County, where Shen Yun is based, to surveil local Falun Gong practitioners. Attack articles targeting Shen Yun appear on Western media, which are then boosted on social media X by thousands of accounts with suspected links to Beijing.
Perry, who sits on the House foreign affairs and intelligence committees, said it was important to take these threats seriously.
It’s important for the United States and the West in general to “understand the pathology of this enemy,” he said. “The CCP just takes advantage of the U.S. judiciary system and also the freedom of the media.”
For the intimidation emails, the senders use Virtual Private Network, or VPN, making it hard to trace where the emails are from, “but we’re well familiar with the threats and the coercion and the intimidation by the Communist Chinese Party,” said Perry.
Taiwan authorities have suspected a China-based research entity under Chinese tech giant Huawei as the possible culprit for the emails.
By Eva Fu and Frank Fang
