Australian PM Evacuated From Residence After Bomb Threats Over Shen Yun Performance

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated from his residence in Canberra on Feb. 24, following a bomb threat made in Chinese against him and other high-ranking officials.The threat came just a day ahead of a scheduled performance by New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts, which has for years been the target of an ongoing Beijing-backed transnational repression campaign.Ahead of its Australian tour, due to start on Feb. 25, emails in Chinese sent to local Australian presenters of Shen Yun demanded that the shows be canceled or face dire consequences. One email, obtained by The Epoch Times, falsely claimed that explosives had been placed around the prime minister’s residence, which could go off if Shen Yun’s performances were to proceed. The prime minister was taken to another location for several hours while law enforcement conducted a search at The Lodge in Canberra. The Australian Federal Police on Feb. 24 conducted a thorough search and found “no current threat to community or public safety,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times.The agency also said more information would be released at an appropriate time.Threats Targeting Shen YunLocal Australian presenters for Shen Yun said they received a Chinese-language email on Feb. 10 with the message, “If Shen Yun performance goes ahead something will happen to Anthony Albanese.”The email threatened the “personal safety of Anthony Albanese and all other Australian high officials” if the shows go ahead.“It doesn’t matter as long as you can afford the cost. I won’t try to talk you out of it anymore. Just don’t regret it later,” it said.The first email, obtained by The Epoch Times, sent to Shen Yun organisers in Australia threatening Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Feb. 10, 2026. Screenshot/The Epoch TimesA second email, sent on Feb. 22, was titled: “Suggestion to stop Shen Yun.”The translation reads: “Large quantities of nitroglycerin explosives have been placed in the Australian Prime Minister’s Lodge located at Adelaide Avenue in the Deakin area of Canberra, Australia.“If you insist on proceeding the performance, then the Prime Minister’s Lodge will be blown into ruins where blood flows like a river.”The second email, obtained by The Epoch Times, sent to Shen Yun organisers in Australia threatening Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Feb. 22, 2026. Screenshot/The Epoch TimesThe sender of the second email was purportedly from Chen Pokong, a U.S.-based columnist, political commentator, and YouTuber who played a key role in the pro-democracy movement in China during 1989, for which he was imprisoned and subsequently exiled to the United States. However, the CCP has a history of impersonating individuals, including foreign officials and dissidents, when making these types of threats.The Epoch Times has contacted Chen for a response.Weeks earlier, similarly worded threats were issued against the British, Korean, and Danish leaders to scare audiences and venue managers, with no actual incidents recorded.The performing arts company, which seeks to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, was founded by artists fleeing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) persecution of Falun Gong. The persecution in China, which began in 1999, has included arbitrary detention, torture, slave labor, and forced organ harvesting, which Shen Yun has showcased in its segments. The Epoch Times is a media sponsor of Shen Yun.Over the past two years, Shen Yun has been subjected to an ongoing CCP-backed transnational campaign involving bomb threats, email threats, and media campaigns.Shen Yun Performing Arts’ curtain call at HOTA Home of the Arts, in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. NTDThe latest email messages follow a Jan. 2 statement by the Chinese consulates in Sydney and Melbourne urging Australians not to watch Shen Yun.The consulates echoed CCP propaganda calling on “friends from all sectors” to remain “vigilant” and to “stay away from the ‘Shen Yun’ performance so as to avoid being misled or deceived.”That message followed two bomb threats in November 2025 targeting a Sydney documentary screening that exposes the CCP’s organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China.‘Unacceptable’In response to the latest emails, One Nation federal MP Barnaby Joyce said it was “totally unacceptable in Australia to intimidate someone who is practicing their religion, in a form that is no threat to Australian culture, and does not intrude on the rights of others.”Former Australian Deputy Prime Minister and now-One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce speaks during the “Put Australia First” rally in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 21, 2025. George Chan/ AFP via Getty Images“We live in an Australian culture. Australian culture has guardrails as to how you act … it supports freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, it believes in the centrality of the family … and patriotism to Australia,” he told The Epoch Times.The Epoch Times has contacted both the Prime Minister’s Office and Leader of the Opposition Angus Taylor for comment.Taylor did later write on X, “Pleased to hear that the Prime Minister is safe and well after being evacuated from his residence in Canberra.“Threats against any parliamentarian are utterly abhorrent, especially in a country built on expressing our differences through debate.”Former Australian Federal Police agent Paul Johnstone said the latest emails could have come from overseas.“The use of the word ‘Australia’ in this context appears unusually formal and somewhat inconsistent with typical Australian correspondence, where such wording would rarely be used. This linguistic irregularity may warrant closer examination as a potential indicator of external authorship,” he told The Epoch Times.Johnstone, who has trained police and security personnel across Asia, said the threatening nature of the message suggested alignment with propaganda channels or elements linked to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or the Ministry of State Security (MSS).“Beijing does not regard Shen Yun as merely a cultural organisation, but as a platform that highlights human rights abuses and challenges the authority of the Chinese regime,” he said.“Chinese diplomatic missions overseas, including in Australia, have reportedly sought to discourage or prevent Shen Yun performances through formal correspondence, engagement with venues and sponsors, and behind-the-scenes pressure on officials.”Johnstone said that these efforts are part of a broader strategy to “shape global narratives and protect China’s international image, which is progressively eroding especially amid rising regional tensions, including maritime confrontations with the Philippines, economic friction with Japan, and internal political upheavals with purges within the PLA and government.”The incident marks the latest in an ongoing campaign targeting Falun Gong and Shen Yun.The Falun Dafa Information Center, which has been tracking the campaign, has counted more than 130 death and bomb threat emails since March 2024. Dozens more violent threats have targeted U.S. officials and institutions that support Falun Gong, according to the center.Most of the emails are in Chinese, with the sender claiming, falsely, that they would stage acts of violence should the show continue. In February 2025, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, now named the Trump Kennedy Center, was evacuated due to a bomb threat targeting Shen Yun.Other threats have directly targeted Shen Yun performers, their families, and their training facilities in New York.Shen Yun’s 2026 Australian tour will perform in the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide from Feb. 25 to March 29.The show has been widely welcomed in Australian cities for many years, earning praise from figures such as billionaire Imelda Roche.Additional reporting by Eva Fu.