A New York-based performing arts company whose mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture on the world stage continues to be the target of the administration’s long-armed intervention campaign.
Over the years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has put diplomatic pressure on host theaters and governments to thwart or thwart the annual world tour of divine art, from running state-sponsored advertisements. I have organized various tricks. campaign.
Since its founding in 2006, Beijing has targeted Chinese classical dance company Shinryu, who has been trying to express “pre-communist China” in this year’s performance.
This time, the CCP’s sabotage activity will follow Shinroku to Mexico, where the company will begin a two-week performance in five cities within a week. According to documents and details shared with the Epoch Times, Chinese embassy staff contacted Mexican staff in at least three cities through letters, emails, phone calls, or messages on social media.
Email request
After first contacting the mayor’s office in Santiago de Queretaro, the central city of Mexico, on Instagram, the Chinese embassy in Mexico sent a series of emails and letters to put pressure on them.
“Falun Dafa Association Mexico … will hold a tour of” Shen Yun “at Metropolitano in Queretaro on May 10th and 11th of this year. This is an event that the Chinese side strongly opposes, “writes Zhao Heng, an embassy attaché. May 4 email to Alma Isagire, the agenda coordinator of the Queretaro government. The copy was obtained by The Epoch Times.
Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice born in China in the 1990s and consists of meditative movements and moral teachings based on the principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. It was very popular at the time until the Chinese government recognized its vast support as a threat and systematically eradicated its faith by initiating radical persecution of its followers. Millions of supporters have been detained by the government in facilities subject to slave labor, torture, indoctrination, and forced organ removal.
Over 20 years of persecution of spiritual groups has been depicted in some of the works of Shinrin for many years.
Zhao of the e-mail asked if the Chinese embassy could send a “memo” to the city government by e-mail or other means to explain “what is the Falun Dafa and Shen Yun Tour”.
“”[W]We urge the Queretaro local government to take the necessary steps to ban the “God’s” case to prevent the Mexican people from being fooled and used, “said Zhao,” with great joy and honor. There is. ” “Connect with talented people and communicate well” on WhatsApp.
After receiving the letter, city officials contacted the local presenters of Shinryu to hear their side of the story.
Leverage the relationship between China and Mexico
The email turned out to be the beginning of several days of efforts by the Chinese embassy to influence Mexican authorities and theaters.
The next day, the Chinese embassy sent a six-page Chinese and Spanish letter entitled “Notes to Queretaro” to the city, asking them to ban Shinrin from playing in the city.
Shinrin will perform twice at the Metropolitano Theater in Queretaro on May 10th and May 11th, and will perform the fourth performance after a year of the pandemic. This year’s company was invited by the mayor who attended the 2019 show.
According to the local organizers, the two performances will be full.
“The people of Queretaro love Shen Yun,” Carlos Guzman, a member of the Falun Dafa Society of Mexico, a local Shen Yun presenter, told the Epoch Times that “the majority of people” are in Shen Yun in 2020. I bought a ticket for the show, which was eventually canceled due to a pandemic, but I kept the ticket instead of refunding it, hoping to see performance when the company returned.
The embassy said that the event was “seriously concerned” that the event was taking place, according to a copy of the May 5 letter obtained by The Epoch Times, with a schedule of performances attached. rice field.
Some parts of the show claim a letter with the embassy’s red mark “attacking the Chinese government.” The Chinese embassy reminded Queretaro of the diplomatic relations between Mexico and China 50 years ago, claiming that the Shinrin performance undermines such friendship.
“The Chinese embassy in Mexico is needed to ban the gods from being hosted in the city and to alert all levels of Queretaro officials, council members, scholars and reporters to keep a distance. I seriously urge the Queretaro government to take action, “the letter read.
Stand on the ground
The Chinese embassy did not elaborate on what a particular segment elicited its anger, but Guzman believes it has something to do with Falun Gong’s values.
“The Falun Dafa promotes three important pillars: truth, compassion, and tolerance, but the Chinese Consulate and the Chinese Embassy seem to be on the other side,” he said. “Falun Dafa promotes truth, but they promote lies.”
The pressure of the Chinese government came just as the practice of forced organ removal, one of the worst abuses targeting Falun Gong practitioners, was increasingly scrutinized in Europe.
The European Parliament on May 5 passed a resolution stating “serious concerns about reports of sustained, systematic, inhumane and state-approved organ removals from Chinese prisoners, more specifically Falun Gong practitioners.” Adopted. The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a prepared statement on May 4 that the EU would “strengthen the criminal, inhumane and unethical practices of forced organ removal as strongly as possible. I blame you. “
As the presenter of Shinryo immediately noticed, the interference of Chinese authorities did not stop at Queretaro. After hearing about the episode of Queretaro, Mar Luano, a spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Mexico, who oversees Shen Yun’s Mexico City Tour, will soon be at the Auditorium, where Shen Yun will perform from May 13th. I called. She told her that the embassy called them to cancel the show two weeks ago.
According to Luano, the theater completely rejected the embassy and said, “They intended to continue the show as originally planned.”
“The auditorium has always opened the door to this kind of show,” they said. Luano told The Epoch Times.
The auditorium audience voted Shinryo as one of the best live performances in Mexico for the second year in a row. 2018 When 2019..
“When I asked them why they didn’t tell me, they told me that I had nothing to worry about, because this was resolved. The auditorium is as before. We are in a strong position to continue the show, “says Luano.
According to a local presenter, Mayor San Luis Potosà also received an email from the Chinese embassy asking him not to promote the two performances scheduled for May 17th and 18th.
According to Guzman, the secret to the success of the divine rendition despite Beijing’s persistent pressure lies in the message it brings to the people.
“The gods show what China would look like in the absence of communism and present the show they show you … all cultures literally annihilated by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
Luano believes that China’s sabotage is unsuccessful in Mexico.
“We are a free country and we have freedom of expression,” she said.
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