‘The threats targeting Shen Yun are horrifying,’ Rep. John Moolenaar said.
Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 19, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
Two House Republicans are warning of the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in response to the latest fake bomb threats that caused the cancellation of six Shen Yun performances in Toronto.
“The threats targeting Shen Yun are horrifying,” Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told The Epoch Times.
“The CCP targets its critics around the world, and its harassment and intimidation should be condemned by all who support free expression.”
Shen Yun, a New York-based nonprofit performing arts organization, features dance and music performances under the tagline “China before communism,” a message that has drawn sustained efforts by the CCP to interfere with its activities. Despite the pressure, Shen Yun has grown from one performance company at its founding in 2006 to eight this year.
Since mid-March, Shen Yun has performed in the Canadian cities of Hamilton, Mississauga, Kitchener, and Vancouver. On March 28, it arrived in Toronto for an eight-performance run at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, with both the matinee and evening performances that day nearly sold out.
On March 29, shortly before the third scheduled performance at 2 p.m. local time, an emailed bomb threat led to the evacuation of the venue. The theater canceled that performance despite police confirmation that there was no credible threat. Later, after receiving additional related emails, the theater canceled the remaining five performances scheduled through April 5.
The sender of the threats to the Toronto theater in a later email boasted of his success, saying the action was his most successful one. The email cited “my motherland’s Communist Party” and said that police around the world have been unable to deal with him. The Toronto police are currently investigating the case.
Shen Yun said in an April 7 statement on its website that it has been targeted by more than 150 hoax bomb threats, mass shooting threats, and other violent threats since 2006, which it attributes to the Chinese regime’s “crusade to silence voices in the West.”
“These incidents are a litmus test of whether free societies will allow authoritarian intimidation to determine what art can be presented and what stories can be told,” Shen Yun said.
It calls on governments and law enforcement officials to continue their investigations and hold the perpetrators accountable.
Several Canadian MPs have expressed concerns about the cancellation, including Conservative MP Marc Dalton, who saw Shen Yun with his wife, Marlene, in Vancouver on April 10.
Shen Yun staged five successful performances in Vancouver, the final stop of its Canada tour in April.
Shen Yun Performing Arts held its second Toronto performance of the 2026 season at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on the evening of March 28, 2026, with the theater filled to capacity. May Huang/The Epoch Times
Asked about the bomb threats, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it “shows the infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party.”
“It also shows that America is not paying attention to the Chinese communists and what they’re doing and their level of infiltration into our country, and we better start paying attention, because they own some members of Congress,” Burchett told The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD.
The lawmaker encouraged the Canadian government to be on the lookout for CCP influence operations.
“Their tentacles are into Canada as well as into this country, and they better start paying attention,” Burchett said.
In the United States, Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, called what happened in Toronto “a dangerous new milestone in the Chinese regime’s transnational repression” against the Falun Gong diaspora, according to an April 7 statement.
Shen Yun’s program features classical Chinese dance alongside ethnic and folk dance, as well as story-based dances. Some depict “contemporary stories of the plight and courage of Falun Dafa practitioners in China,” according to its website. Many of Shen Yun’s artists practice Falun Gong, and some have either experienced persecution firsthand in China or have family members who have been persecuted.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice with teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. China has launched a bloody persecution against the group since 1999, with hundreds of thousands tortured while incarcerated and untold numbers persecuted to death.
The Falun Dafa Information Center said the Toronto incident was a “wake-up call” as a hoax was enough to stop the performance.
“The idea that we would cower to these scare tactics and stop Shen Yun performing, I think, is a dangerous precedent in this transnational repression,” Browde said.