Taiwan Suspects Bomb Threats Targeting Shen Yun Originate From Huawei Research Facility in China

The transnational threat campaign follows years of CCP pressure to interfere with the performing arts group’s global tour.

People walk past a Huawei customer service center in Berlin, Germany, on March 12, 2019. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Taiwanese authorities suspect some of the most recent bomb threats targeting New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts are linked to a research entity of Chinese tech giant Huawei, The Epoch Times has learned.

The classical Chinese dance company, founded by Chinese artists living in America to showcase Chinese civilization before communist rule, has faced dozens of violent threats since March 2024 amid its global touring season.

In Taiwan, government offices and hosting venues in several cities have received at least 17 emails recently threatening various forms of detonating explosives or mass shootings to scare off the performances.

The senders have used a jump host to make it appear that they are from countries such as France, the United States, and elsewhere.

But Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, through a multi-agency investigation, says it traced the emails back to Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province in central China. The emails appear to have originated from around the location of Huawei Xi’an Institute, a research center of the company that is now at the forefront in aiding Beijing’s global tech ambitions, Taiwanese authorities confirmed.

The organization, situated in a state-level high-tech development zone, became a prime suspect in Taiwan’s investigation. Taiwanese authorities pointed to the institute as the most consequential entity in the vicinity; they also didn’t rule out the possibility that Chinese state-funded internet trolls—also known as the 50 Cent Army—were behind the campaign.

A spokesperson for the bureau told The Epoch Times that they have shared the details with mainland authorities but received no response.

Huawei didn’t reply to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

The threat emails often contain graphic details, sometimes attaching photos of a gun or other items to further demonstrate their intent. No actual harm has materialized so far, but in the Kennedy Center in Washington and theaters in other countries, the threats led to venues being evacuated ahead of the scheduled shows and canine units being called in to search the sites.

Taiwanese authorities said the intimidation fits the pattern of efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to interfere with normal functions in the democratic-ruling island, and they called for local government agencies to heighten their alert. They said they have enhanced security measures and are closely communicating with organizations that reported such incidents.

Both the White House and the U.S. State Department in recent months have condemned the intimidation campaign targeting Shen Yun.

Besides showcasing the authentic Chinese culture that prevailed before communism in China, Shen Yun’s performances include segments depicting the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, whose adherents have been targeted for their faith since 1999. For more than a quarter-century, practitioners of the faith group, whose core tenets are truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, have been illegally arrested and detained and have experienced abuses such as sexual assault and forced drug injection. They are a primary target for the regime’s forced organ harvesting program.

Since Shen Yun’s founding in New York in 2006, Chinese diplomats have exerted political and economic pressure on Shen Yun’s hosting venues in an attempt to cancel performances. After finding the bus tires slashed multiple times, the company had to send security to watch for its tour buses at all hours. It believes Chinese agents were behind the incidents.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who co-launched the congressional Victims of Communism Caucus on April 10 to honor the lives killed under communism, said that the threats to Shen Yun highlight the importance of the legislative group.

“We want to make sure that we get the word out that communists across this country are not only not in the majority, but are representative of failed states,” she told The Epoch Times.

“They oppress their people; they are a lie.

“Everything about the Chinese Communist regime is built on a lie and built on government control.”

Part of the goal of the caucus, she said, is about “making sure that cultural groups like [Shen Yun are] able to continue to really show the vibrancy of the Chinese people, who we know if they had an opportunity to reject communism would be able to live in freedom.”

The findings from Taiwanese authorities are a step forward in countering similar transnational repression operations, according to Sarah Cook, an independent researcher who has decades of experience on human rights issues.

It shows “there are tools that would allow law enforcement agencies to trace these kinds of threats back to China, even if the perpetrator is using a VPN,” she told The Epoch Times, referring to encrypted virtual private networks, which enable users to mask their real IP addresses.

“I would hope that the U.S. and other governments would use those, given the number of threats that Shen Yun and Falun Gong have been facing outside of Taiwan.”

Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, has been tracking such threats over the past year. He urged U.S. and Taiwanese officials to continue investigating the issue and hold the perpetrators to account.

“This behavior is dangerous, illegal, and aims to silence the very artistic expression the CCP doesn’t want the world to see. It must be stopped,” he said in a statement.

Frank Fang and the Taiwan bureau of The Epoch Times contributed to this report.