Disturbing: Shen Yun Cancellation in Toronto After Beijing-Linked Threat Reminiscent of Tactics in China, Scholar Says

The cancellation of Shen Yun shows in Toronto after a hoax bomb threat organizers say Beijing is behind, is “disturbingly similar” to instances of events and organizations shut down in China by the communist regime, says China scholar Patricia Adams, executive director of the Toronto-based think tank Probe International.Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts cancelled Shen Yun shows scheduled to perform at the theatre from March 29 to April 5 after receiving fake bomb threats from a Chinese email account.Shen Yun’s local presenters say this is a global first, as the show has been targeted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with fake bomb threats around the world more than 150 times over the past two years, but each time after police confirmed the threats were unfounded, the shows were allowed to proceed.“It’s a very tragic display of the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to disrupt, to threaten, to make people fearful, and to destroy something very beautiful,” Adams said in an interview.“It seemed to me like it was the playbook that I had seen before,” she added, noting the disruption is “disturbingly similar” to what happens to events and organizations in China that the CCP opposes.Adams noted her colleagues in China, who set up readings or discussions in public settings, have experienced similar instances of their events or leases being cancelled at the will of the Chinese regime. She said in such cases, the owner of the venue would be contacted by China’s Ministry of State Security or the Chinese police to force the cancellation of the event.“They would get the landlord to cancel, so they wouldn’t necessarily do it directly, and then there would be no explanation,” Adams said. “The landlord would just say, ‘I’m sorry, you can’t go ahead.’”Adams noted that what she found “most disturbing” about the cancellation of the shows at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto is that “there didn’t seem to be any pushback,” including from the government.Audience members outside the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto after Shen Yun was cancelled due to a hoax bomb threat on April 1, 2026. Teng Dongyu/The Epoch Times“It seems to me that in a case like that, the show must go on,” Adams said. “You do a thorough search, you get extra security, you dig, you figure out where this message came from, you’re calling the Chinese ambassador if you need to, you do whatever you have to do to make sure that the show goes on.”The Toronto Police Service told The Epoch Times that it has determined that the bomb threat at the Four Seasons Centre is unfounded, adding that the incident is under investigation. The RCMP referred questions about the incident to the local police of jurisdiction.The Epoch Times contacted the prime minister’s office, Public Safety Canada, Canadian Heritage, and Global Affairs Canada for comment but didn’t hear back.Joel Chipkar, a spokesperson for the local presenter of the show, the Falun Dafa Association of Toronto (FDAT), says the targeting of the show and its cancellation is “a complete assault on our safety, our sovereignty, and also on the artistic community.”The FDAT says that there have been dozens of similar fake bomb threats targeting Shen Yun in Canada, including most recently at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga in March, but after police confirmed the threat wasn’t credible, the show was allowed to proceed.The organization adds that the Four Seasons Centre’s unprecedented decision to cancel the shows altogether despite police assurance that there was no credible threat means that over 10,000 Canadians who had bought tickets to the remaining shows, which started on March 28, won’t be able to see it in Toronto.The Canadian Opera Company, which owns and operates the Four Seasons Centre, told media that it made the decision to cancel the shows “out of an abundance of caution.”Shen Yun was formed in New York in 2006 by leading Chinese artists with a mission to revive China’s traditional culture. The company, whose performances carry the tagline “China Before Communism,” has been frequently targeted by the CCP in a variety of ways.Last year, police in Taiwan said they traced email accounts that sent bomb threats to venues hosting Shen Yun in the country, to an area in Xi’an, China. As well, in 2024, two Chinese agents in the United States received prison time for attempting to bribe an Internal Revenue Service agent to open an investigation into Shen Yun.Cancellations in ChinaAdams noted several other cases of organizations being denied venues or facing cancellations after being targeted by the CCP.One example cited by Adams is the case of the economic think tank Unirule Institute of Economics, which was shut out of its Beijing offices in July 2018 by a leasing company.The organization, which was known for its liberal research and policy development on economics and government in China, had its website shut down by Chinese authorities in 2016 after Chinese officials said the website “violated the law.”Chinese paramilitary police patrol in Shanghai, China, on June 15, 2023. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images“Finally one day, the police came and locked the doors with all the staff still in the office,” Adams said. The organization dissolved in 2019.She noted another example involving the well-known liberal bookstore the Jifeng Bookstore in Shanghai, which closed down in January 2018 after the landlord declined to renew its lease. The bookstore, which held public discussions on social issues and religion, also faced interference trying to relocate to new sites.Another think tank based in Beijing, the Transition Institute on Social Economic Research, was shut down by Chinese authorities in 2013 amid a clampdown on rights activists. Adams said the organization published reports on the rule of law and legal reform, and China’s public security ministry shut down the think tank by raiding its offices and jailing some of its staff.In addition, Adams noted that China’s art sector has also been subject to similar shutdowns, with artists being forced from their homes and studios in art districts across China.“People kind of held their breath waiting to see if this was going to happen to them,” Adams said, noting it happened “quite a bit.”She said the CCP seeks to silence organizations that tell the truth, are critical of the Chinese regime, and do historical research, as the Chinese regime “wants to control the history.”Chinese authorities have also banned published books that tell the truth about Chinese history, she said. She noted the Transition Institute created a compilation of writings by Dai Qing, a freelance journalist and critic of the CCP, who publicly denounced the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, quit the CCP, and was later imprisoned for 10 months. Her writing was “pulled off the shelves,” Adams said.“They want to control people’s minds, they want to control thought, they want to control the truth, they want to control what people know,” she said. “And I’m sorry to say that I think that’s starting to happen in Canada as well.”‘Erode Confidence in Our Institutions’In drawing a similarity between the evictions and shutdowns in China and the cancellation of Shen Yun in Toronto, Adams said the model the CCP uses is to disrupt and to make people fearful.The Chinese regime has targeted Shen Yun Performing Arts for over two decades. Courtesy of Shen Yun“It’s to erode confidence in our institutions, and if you cannot go to the theatre to enjoy the arts, if you worry that there’s a bomb in the theatre, it’s disorienting,” she said. “It’s destabilizing to people’s sense of security in their country.”She said that in China, the CCP aims to stop its critics from telling the truth, and in Canada, the Chinese regime aims to stop the appreciation of Shen Yun’s presentation of Chinese culture and arts. It also aims to “bend Canada to the CCP’s will,” she added.“They know no limits. They will try to undermine people’s confidence in all aspects of their lives, whether it’s the law, whether it’s public security, whether it’s honest elections, and even to the point where you cannot go to a theatre and enjoy a spectacular, fine piece of art.”Shen Yun “must be one of the world’s premier dance troupes,” and is an “example of excellence,” which the CCP wants to silence, she said.She added that the Chinese regime wants to cast doubt, make people feel insecure, and stop communication between Shen Yun and the public.“I think the only way to deal with that sort of thing is to not accept it—for the government not to accept it, for the police not to accept it—and to give every confidence to the audience that they should go [to the show] and they will enjoy it,” Adams said.“They will have done a very good thing, I think, by standing behind the dance company.”