Is Huawei the Source of the Bomb Threats?
According to a report by Taiwan’s Liberty Times, in light of a spat of bomb and shooting threats targeting Shen Yun’s performances there, the Criminal Police Bureau launched an investigation and pinpointed the source of the threatening emails as the “Huawei Xi’an Institute.”
This Huawei research institute is located in the city of Xi’an in Shaanxi, China. The investigation further concluded that the threats were made by someone related to the Huawei Group, and indicated it does not rule out the possibility that it was made by Chinese Communist Party cyber-armies based in the vicinity of the location.
Theaters hosting Shen Yun performances in the Taiwanese cities of Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Keelung have all received emails threatening to bomb the theater or shoot audience members should the performances be allowed to take place.
On March 30, a total of 27 live chat message bomb threats were sent in under two minutes to Taichung City Chung Shan Hall, often with multiple messages going out the very same second, suggesting these were perhaps being sent by a bot.
“We have guns and Molotov cocktails prepared,” the identical messages read. “We will enter as spectators on the day of the Shen Yun performance. If the Shen Yun performance starts, we will suddenly pull out our guns and shoot at the actors and throw Molotov cocktails towards the stage! Anyone who stops us will be targeted.”
That same day, as widely reported in Taiwanese press, at least four entities in Taiwan received emails threatening to set off bombs if they don’t make public statements opposing Shen Yun. The threats included to blow-up the 17-story building shared by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Digital Affairs, as well as the Neihu District Office of Taipei City, and two local media. The Ministry of Digital Affairs additionally received an email trying to blackmail it to pay 10 million NT$. Upon police investigation, no threats were found.
The Taiwanese Criminal Police Bureau investigation is the first to have identified the source of the threats. In total, 42 different theaters have received threats of mass violence targeting Shen Yun performances.
Additionally, Shen Yun’s headquarters of Dragon Springs in New York has received nearly daily death threats in recent months, as have individuals and entities affiliated with Falun Gong practitioners, such as the Falun Dafa Information Center.
Below is a graph showing the recent trend:
