COPENHAGEN—An investigative journalist highlighted the severity of the Chinese regime’s interference into Denmark when he recently spoke about his probe into alleged Beijing pressure to prevent Shen Yun Performing Arts from performing in the small European nation.

Thomas Foght, an investigative journalist with Radio24syv, started investigating into the pressure the traditional Chinese dance and music company was facing after developing an interest in Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence on Denmark and Danish authorities.

“I was curious to see whether there were some other cases of pressuring and I was curious to see how the Danish authorities reacted to it,” Foght said.

“I think there are some interesting clashes between Denmark and China. I mean Denmark is a democracy. We pay a lot of attention to our fundamental rights and then we have to work together [with a country] who’s a dictatorship and do not have freedom of speech, or freedom of religion, and these fundamental rights. So how does Denmark pay attention to those rights when they have to cooperate with China, who doesn’t have the same perspective on life and on rights, and democracy?” he added.

Shen Yun seeks to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture through the performing arts, according to the company’s website. Its performances include pieces that portray contemporary China, including the ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) and spirituality in the culture—topics which are considered taboo by the atheist regime.

In 2017, local organizers of Shen Yun wrote a letter to Danish authorities, appealing for the company to be allowed to perform at the Royal Danish Theater, but did not have any success.

According to emails obtained by Foght, when Denmark’s Ministry of Culture requested a comment from the Royal Danish Theater, one of its employees revealed to another staff member that he or she had met with the Chinese Embassy in August.

“They [embassy] ended the meeting by asking if we had a dialogue with Shen Yun, and requested that we shouldn’t allow them to rent our facilities,” the email stated.

Theater director Morten Hesseldahl and culture minister Mette Bock subsequently denied the accusation and said they were not aware of any pressure from the Chinese Embassy.

“I think the politicians were quite shocked and surprised when they saw this. Many people said it was completely inappropriate that the Chinese Embassy was trying to influence the theater in this decision,” he added.

At the time, Soren Espersen, chair of the foreign policy committee in the Danish parliament, told Danish newspaper Berlingske in an interview that the Chinese Embassy’s actions were “chauvinistic.”

“Why would they get to decide who gets to be on our stage, who gets to perform?” he said.

Similarly, Liberal Party politician Michael Aastrup Jensen told U.S.-based Chinese language broadcaster, New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) that the Danish government should investigate such interference.

The U.S. branch of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), a non-profit organization that investigates human-rights abuses perpetrated against Falun Gong adherents, said it decided to conduct an investigation into the cancellation after seeing media reports about possible Chinese Embassy interference to pressure the theater into canceling the show.

“The investigation confirmed that the cancellation of the theater’s contract with the Shen Yun organizers was entirely the result of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) interferences,” WOIPFG said in its statement.

“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 an enticement, Lü Fan and the theater’s director jointly planned to cancel the Shen Yun performances under the pretext of technical difficulties.”