Kennedy Center Receives Bomb Threat Targeting Shen Yun

SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE: Shows are proceeding as planned, already completed two, ten more to go. Kennedy Center has increased security and there are no issues.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Press conference held at the National Press Club:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRNH5OYtc2o&t=283s

THURSDAY UPDATE: The building has reopened, all clear, and no threats were found.

In the latest of a series of dozens of prank bomb threats targeting Shen Yun Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center received an emailed threat at roughly 10:30am this morning. The threat claimed a bomb had been placed in the theater and would be detonated should Shen Yun be allowed to perform. Over the past few weeks of Shen Yun's global tour, similar threats have been received by theaters in San Jose and Berkeley, California, Waterbury, Connecticut, Atlanta, Georgia, San Antonio, Texas, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as in theaters where Shen Yun was performing in France, Italy, England, and Poland. 

While all cases were reported to the police and the FBI, they have all been pranks meant to scare theaters and audience members. The threats, often in Chinese, come at the same time that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has escalated its campaign to try to "eliminate" Shen Yun and Falun Gong globally. Notably, these threats have escalated as attacks by some media outlets have demonized Shen Yun.

Ever since Shen Yun's inception in 2006, the CCP has tried to stop the performance. It has tried pressuring theaters to cancel shows, threatened sponsors, and harassed performers' family members in China. In recent months, leaked documents from the Ministry of State Security in China have spoken of a new campaign to weaponize social media and mainstream American media to attack Shen Yun. Over 130 cases of attempted sabotage, often linked directly to the CCP and its consulates and embassies around the world, have been documented.

The CCP fears Shen Yun because the company's mission is to show "China before communism," to revive traditional culture, the very culture the CCP spent decades trying to destroy. At the same time, as part of each Shen Yun performance, the story of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and their courageous peaceful resistance, is also told in a moving way on stage. This is a human rights atrocity the CCP has been trying to hide.

Tonight's performance is the first of a 12-show run at the Kennedy Center and is still scheduled to begin at 7:30pm.

For interviews or more information, please contact:

Leeshai Lemish, Shen Yun MC currently at the Kennedy Center. 347-979-5087

Levi Browde, Executive Director, Falun Dafa Information Center. 845-418-4870⁩

Additional Resources:

The untold story of Shen Yun, including misconceptions:
https://www.shenyun.org/discover-the-heart-of-shen-yun

Over 130 cases of attempts to sabotage Shen Yun, often with direct links to the CCP:
https://leeshailemish.com/on-shen-yun/whos-afraid-of-shen-yun/

Falun Dafa Information Center - CCP Targets Shen Yun:
https://faluninfo.net/ccp-targets-shen-yun/

Shen Yun factsheet:
https://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/shen-yun-factsheet