Press secretary says the Trump administration will take any such threats seriously and ensure perpetrators are held accountable.
WASHINGTON—The White House has condemned the threats linked to Beijing that aim to disrupt performances of Shen Yun Performing Arts, saying the Trump administration will take any such threats seriously and ensure perpetrators are held accountable.
“Don’t disrupt it,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a March 17 news briefing. “This administration will take that very seriously and hold you accountable.
“We obviously condemn any violence or threats of violence against American institutions.”
Leavitt made the comment in response to a question from The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet, NTD, regarding President Donald Trump’s visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the afternoon of March 17.
Bomb threats targeting Shen Yun had recently caused the theater to evacuate on Shen Yun’s opening day and install metal detectors at the entrance as a precaution.
While the police found no harmful objects and the performance proceeded smoothly, the incident was far from an isolated issue. Since March 2024, the company has faced dozens of similar emailed threats of violence during its global tour.
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The company has called for an investigation after the Kennedy Center case, saying that “if it doesn’t stop with Shen Yun, it won’t stop with somebody else.”
Trump made his first tour at the Kennedy Center after overhauling the center’s leadership last month and taking over the institution as the chairman. Some of his new appointees to the center’s board of trustees include Second Lady Usha Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and two Fox anchors, Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo.
Leavitt, at the news conference, said Trump “hopes to restore arts and culture that embrace American tradition, don’t disparage it, as we have unfortunately seen over the past several years.”
She added that she expects Trump to give some input on where the center can improve and discuss future theater programs that it will host under the new leadership.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Feb. 21, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
Shen Yun and several cybersecurity experts said the Chinese regime is the most likely culprit for the interference operations against the company. Analysts said the issue carries security implications that must be addressed at the top diplomatic levels.
Over the years, Chinese officials have made extensive efforts to cancel Shen Yun’s shows in various cities through a combination of blackmail and economic coercion. The Falun Dafa Information Center in New York documented more than 130 instances of such efforts from Chinese diplomats and agents throughout 2024.
In September and November 2024, two men received prison terms for their scheme to nullify Shen Yun’s nonprofit status by bribing the IRS.
The State Department has denounced Beijing’s intimidation campaign against Shen Yun, noting in a recent statement to The Epoch Times that its annual international religious freedom report “documents incidents of interference against Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun Performing Arts in many countries.”
One of the State Department reports released in 2024 cited an Epoch Times investigation that quoted a Chinese Embassy spokesperson admitting on the record to attempting to block Shen Yun in South Korea.
