Who's afraid of Shen Yun?

In its 2010 annual report on religious freedom, the U.S. Department of State cited multiple cases of cancellation of Shen Yun Performing Arts shows due to pressure from Chinese authorities. The cancellation of performances took place last year in the  Eastern European countries of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine and were ultimately carried out by local authorities. The source of the pressure, however, is  traced back to representatives of the Chinese Communist Party’s regime, as cited in the report and throughout this website (see evidence chart).

The DOS report further detailed the cancellation of seven sold-out Shen Yun performances in Hong Kong, due to Hong Kong authorities refusal to grant visas to Shen Yun crew.

The report also cited the arrest of Jiang Feng, the husband of Shen Yun erhu virtuoso Mei Xuan.

Below are the relevant excerpts from the DOS report.

Moldova:

“The government cancelled two performances by Shen Yun Performing Arts, an organization that artistically presents Chinese culture through music and dance and speaks about the Chinese government’s mistreatment of Falun Gong. The Chinese government banned the Falun Gong in 1999 and has been reportedly pressuring governments in Europe, North America, and Asia to cancel Shen Yun performances. At a press conference held on May 27, 2010, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Andrei Popov voiced concern over the political nature of the show, and claimed that it might hurt diplomatic relations with China. The theater cancelled both scheduled performances on May 25 and 26, reportedly succumbing to pressure from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, despite a contract signed with the Falun Dafa Association on January 20, 2010.”

Romania:

“In January 2010 government intervention prevented Shen Yun Performing Arts from performing at a theater in Bucharest. Shen Yun Performing Arts is an organization that artistically presented Chinese culture through music and dance and references the Chinese government’s mistreatment of Falun Gong. The Chinese government-banned Falun Gong in 1999 and has been reportedly pressuring governments in Europe, North America, and Asia to cancel Shen Yun performances. Several Romanian members of the European Parliament unsuccessfully tried to reverse the government’s decision. Falun Dafa Romania, which sponsored the shows, alleged that the Chinese Embassy pressured the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to forbid the performance. The MFA said the cancellation was due to a contract issue.”

Ukraine:

“The government cancelled a performance by Shen Yun Performing Arts, an organization that artistically presents Chinese culture through music and dance and speaks about the Chinese government’s mistreatment of Falun Gong. The Chinese government banned the Falun Gong in 1999 and has been reportedly pressuring governments in Europe, North America, and Asia to cancel Shen Yun performances. The show was scheduled to take place in Odesa on May 28, 2010, but was cancelled, allegedly following pressure from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Odesa’s local government.”

Hong Kong:

“The Epoch Group, a media organization with ties to Falun Gong, rented premises and sold out a several-day run of performances of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Show in January 2010. The show presents Chinese culture through music and dance and references the mainland government’s treatment of the Falun Gong. The HKSAR denied visas to six technicians of the Shen Yun troupe. The Immigration Department stated that the visas were refused in accordance with laws protecting the employment of local workers, and that the troupe could hire competent staff locally. Epoch Group contended that local staff could not replace the specialized expertise of its staff. The government sustained its refusals, and the Epoch Group cancelled the show. Epoch Group is seeking judicial review of the refusals.”

Mei Xuan:

“In February 2010 Jiang Feng, the husband of a musician in Shen Yun, a Falun Gong-related performing arts show, was reported missing in the country. His family members have received no information on any arrest, charges, or sentence.”

And in general, as part of a larger pattern:

“The Falun Gong also reported several incidents of the government’s interference with their activities abroad. According to NGO reports, the Shen Yun Performing Arts Company, and several media outlets, government officials pressured venues and governments in Asia and Europe to limit the broadcast time of Falun Gong-associated radio stations and cancel or otherwise delay Shen Yun performances. The performances artistically present Chinese culture through music and dance and reference the Government’s treatment of Falun Gong.”

在美国国务院2010年的宗教自由年度报道中，其引用了多件由于中国当局施加压力而被取消的神韵艺术团的演出。去年在东欧的多个国家都曾有演出被取消，如摩尔多瓦，罗马尼亚，和乌克兰等地，后均被当地主办方揭露于众。其压力主要是来自中共政权的威逼，本站亦有相关报道。

美国国务院的报道还详细的报道了由于香港当局拒绝给神韵工作人员入境签证而被迫取消香港七场售票已空的演出。

该报道还报道了神韵二胡演奏家美旋的丈夫江峰被捕事件。

下面是美国国务院报道的有关摘录： Continue reading

以下是一份中共和中领馆在世界各地干扰神韵演出的记录表。这只是一部分证据， 如果您还有别的证据，欢迎您把他告诉我们。

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The evidence chart has been translated into Chinese, and is available here.

For a word.doc copy of this chart, please email a request via the contact form.

Reunion denied by China’s ongoing religious persecution

By Mei Xuan

Have you ever waited at an airport for a loved one you have not seen in a long time? Surely you remember the giddy expectation, scanning arriving passengers for that familiar face. But what if your loved one never arrived?

My husband never turned up. On Feb. 18, I waited for him at Newark International Airport with flowers. It had been over three years since I last saw him before fleeing China. Jiang Feng was to arrive on a Continental Airlines flight from Shanghai, but after the last passengers left he was still nowhere to be seen. My calls to China confirmed my greatest fears: He checked in, but never boarded the flight. Chinese secret police abducted him.

We married 12 years ago in Anhui province. I was a musician and he worked as a piano tuner. But before our first anniversary we were kidnapped from our workplaces and jailed. That was July 20, 1999, the first round of arrests of Falun Gong practitioners like us.

Our worlds collapsed as the campaign rolled in with a force equal to that of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Suddenly, we were enemies of the state, cut off from our family and friends. We were arrested for practicing meditation and following our discipline – principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Falun Gong was becoming too popular for the Communist Party’s liking and our crime was having an independent belief system.

As I was a prominent musician, my director pulled strings to get me out, but my husband was jailed for three years. In 2002, literally days before his release, I was standing on a sidewalk when plainclothes police suddenly shoved me into a taxi and drove me to a detention center. They imprisoned me for four years. I was tied to a chair for 75 days without being allowed to sleep or use the restroom. My fingers and feet swelled three times their size. I was electrocuted, beaten and repeatedly knocked unconscious. I watched my friends, one after another, take their last breaths. Somehow, I survived and, after being released in 2006, fled to the United States.

My husband and I planned to reunite here. After I was generously granted political asylum, he also received the status of “derivative asylee,” obtained a U.S. visa, packed his bags and checked in at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

He would have been with me in Washington this week, as thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world mark yet another anniversary of persecution in China. Instead, he is in an Anhui province labor camp in which prisoners toil in a coal mine. In addition to torture, my husband now faces the dangers of being trapped, suffocated or crushed underground in China’s most fatality-prone work.

Many people think the persecution of Falun Gong is mostly a thing of the past, a blotch on China’s slow but steady progress. Quite the contrary. In the months before the Olympics, over 8,000 practitioners were arrested, often from their homes for no apparent reason other than their faith. Many were sent to labor camps for periods far exceeding the length of the Olympic Games. Last year saw an upsurge in sham trials with hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to prison for up to 18 years, often simply for downloading an article or distributing leaflets exposing persecution.

My husband and I were wed 12 years ago but, separated by persecution, we have shared married life for only a few months. I am extremely worried about his safety as I know what he faces every minute.

As you notice the Falun Gong activities this week, please remember that these victims of oppression are real people. They are our husbands and parents and children. They need your international voices of support. We have seen how, when the world looks away, we face the darkest pitilessness of the Chinese Communist Party. Your direct, public statements of support have a great restraining effect.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/21/an-empty-seat-a-broken-heart/

Chinese regime implicated in ongoing attempts to stop show

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視頻節目： http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/b5/2010/07/01/a412547.html#video

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神韵巡回艺术团主持人林理善2010年6月30日下午在美国国会众议院朗沃斯办公大楼（Longworth Building）举办的研讨会上﹐揭露中共破坏神韵演出的卑劣手段。（摄影：李莎/大纪元）

神韵举办方在美国会曝光中共骚扰 FBI立案

【大纪元7月2日讯】（大纪元记者亦平美国华盛顿DC报导）2010年6月30日下午，美国华府神韵演出主办机构在美国国会众议院朗沃斯办公大楼 （Longworth Building）举办研讨会，揭露中共在世界各地破坏神韵演出的种种卑劣手段。美国多个城市的剧院方或演出主办单位已将中共干扰破坏神韵演出的证据上报 美国联邦调查局（FBI），FBI立案并展开调查。

中共在北美给剧院发匿名信 FBI展开调查

神韵巡回艺术团主持人林理善说，中共使馆发送信件给政府官员、剧院、以及媒体，向他们施压，企图阻止神韵演出，但大多都未能得逞。在美国阿肯色州小石城，剧院经理收到中共驻休斯顿领事馆的抹黑神韵的信件，剧院方将该信上报FBI，这是美国剧院受到骚扰后的常见反应。 Continue reading

On May 11, the Chairwoman of European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights Ms Heidi Hautala wrote to the PRC Ambassador to the European Union to inquire about Jiang Feng. Jiang, the husband of Shen Yun’s erhu virtuoso Mei Xuan, had disappeared in Shanghai while trying to board a flight to reunite with his wife.

In her letter, Ms. Hautala wrote: “it is widely believed that Mr Jiang Feng was abducted by security agents and is being interrogated and abused in custody.”

In reply, the PRC Ambassador to the EU, Song Zhe, confirmed that Jiang had been jailed. An excerpt from his letter reads:

The rest of Song Zhe’s letter goes on about Chinese rule of law and there being “no basis to the so-called claim that Jiang is ‘subject to abuse’.” Jiang had previously been imprisoned for three years and Mei Xuan for four. Both had been tortured regularly throughout their imprisonment.

This was the first word of Jiang’s whereabouts in nearly three months since his February 18 disappearance. PRC authorities did not even notify his family and Mei Xuan had to find out where her husband is through the European Parliament.

Through the assistance of kindhearted people, Mei Xuan has since learned that Jiang Feng is being held in the Number 3 Brigade of the Anhui Xuancheng Forced Labor Camp. In this camp prisoners work in a coal mine as de facto slaves. Now, in addition to torture, brainwashing classes, and exhaustion, Jiang Feng faces the dangers of China’s most fatal profession.

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