WASHINGTON, D.C.—Although only six years old, Matthew Kroenig’s daughter had long been interested in the history and culture of China.

“She’s always been interested in Chinese culture,” he said. “And she’s only 6, but I think she understands that the Chinese government is bad, but Chinese people are good.”

“Chinese civilization is amazing—thousands of years of civilization, and so really, really remarkable,” said Mr. Kroenig, the director of studies at the Atlantic Council and an influential political scientist.

As an expert in national security strategy, Mr. Kroenig is well versed in matters of today’s China, and was impressed that Shen Yun touched on modern-day China in an artful way in its performance.

“I think it’s important,” he said of Shen Yun’s presentation, “because I do see that the Chinese Communist Party as a major challenge to rules-based international order. I am a foreign policy expert, and I think a lot of people don’t appreciate that. And so I think the performance did a great job of, not in a heavy-handed way, but in a couple of the performances, warning out the dangers of living under a communist government.”

“I think it’s wonderful what they’re doing. And I have a lot of concerns about the Chinese Communist Party, and what it’s done to China, and what the threats [are] it poses to its neighbors and the global order. So I think getting a better government in China that respects the human rights of its people, and then allows traditional Chinese culture to flourish would be fantastic,” Mr. Kroenig said.