(Minghui.org) After successfully concluding performances in Taiwan and South Korea, the Shen Yun New Era Company arrived in Queensland, Australia, on February 22 to kick off the third stop of its 2026 Asia-Pacific tour at the Gold Coast Arts Center. This leg of the tour features 30 performances in four major Australian cities beginning on February 25.
Just one day before the performances were scheduled to begin, on February 24, the local Shen Yun organizers in Australia received two threatening emails in Chinese, demanding the performance be canceled. The email claimed that explosives had been placed around the official residence of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and they would be detonated if the Shen Yun performances were not canceled.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) conducted a thorough search of the Prime Minister’s residence that day, during which Prime Minister Albanese was taken to another location and he stayed there for several hours. An AFP spokesperson told The Epoch Times that, “No current threat to community or public safety” was found, and added that more information would be released in due course.
“Totally Unacceptable”
This incident, in which Prime Minister Albanese was forced to leave his official residence due to a bomb threat, has garnered widespread coverage from major Australian media outlets. This case is not isolated. A few weeks ago, government leaders in the UK, South Korea, and Denmark also received similar threatening emails. Over the past two years, Shen Yun Performing Arts has been targeted by a campaign of transnational repression from the Chinese Communist Party, including bomb threats, email threats, and fake media reports.
Regarding the recent email intimidation incident by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Dr. Lucy Zhao, President of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia, told Minghui.org, “We condemn the CCP’s transnational repression of Shen Yun and Falun Gong. This is a hate crime and these terrorist threats aim to silent dissidents and stop Shen Yun. We won’t be intimidated or stopped by the CCP’s threats. We will work harder to ensure that Shen Yun’s shows are held safely and successfully in Australia.
“We will continue holding Falun Gong activities to expose the CCP’s persecution. Such CCP threats have been reported to national security agencies. I am glad to see that AFP has taken action to protect our prime minister’s safety. I believe our government will not allow such CCP foreign interference to continue and will investigate further and take action to prevent it,” she said.
Former Australian Deputy Prime Minister and now-One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce (Australian Government Website)
In response to the latest emails, One Nation federal MP Barnaby Joyce said, “[It is] 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.
“We live in an Australian culture. Australian culture has guardrails as to how you act,” he explained. “It supports freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of movement, it believes in the centrality of the family...and patriotism to Australia.”
According to statistics from the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC), from March 2024 to October 2025, the total number of anonymous death threats against Falun Gong practitioners overseas or those impersonating Falun Gong practitioners reached 193. Since 2024, several theaters received bomb and shooting threats during Shen Yun’s global tour.
In September 2024, the CCP hackers repeatedly impersonated The Epoch Times and sent bomb threats to the White House and the US federal government; in October 2024, The Epoch Times headquarters in New York received a threatening letter which contained white powder.
Piero Tozzi, staff director of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), considered this part of the CCP’s “unrestricted warfare” strategy against the United States. “This is clearly a tactic they are increasingly employing,” he added, “We must remain highly vigilant.”
The latest threatening emails targeting the Prime Minister and senior officials in Australia were preceded by a statement released on the official website of the Chinese Consulates in Sydney and Melbourne earlier this year. The statement, issued on January 2, repeated the CCP’s consistent propaganda against Falun Gong practitioners and Shen Yun performances, and called on Australians not to watch Shen Yun.
Prior to this, a screening of a documentary in Sydney exposing the CCP’s forced organ harvesting in November 2025 was canceled after two bomb threats.
Ralph Babet, Victorian Senator of the United Australia Party. (Screenshot courtesy United Australia Party website)
Senator Ralph Babet issued a strongly worded statement criticizing the Chinese Consulate, “This is Australia, not China. We are a free country. We do not take cultural instructions from an authoritarian regime that censors art, crushes religion, and jails dissidents.
“The CCP does not own Chinese culture,” he explained. “It does not speak for all Chinese people. And it has no right to export censorship and intimidation onto Australian soil.”
Falun Gong practitioners in Sydney held a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate on January 23 to protest the consulate’s defamation of Shen Yun and Falun Gong. They said this exportation of hate propaganda to Australian society is a form of transnational repression. Yuan Hongbing, a legal scholar residing in Australia, spoke at the event. “The CCP’s tyranny aims to turn free Australia into its political, economic, and cultural colony,” he said. “Australian society must more deeply and fully recognize the fundamental fact that the CCP is essentially a global expansion of communist totalitarianism, and that it is the mastermind behind international terrorism.”
Human rights activist Bob Vinnicombe said we must not allow them to go unpunished and do whatever they want. If our government allows this to happen, the CCP will become even more rampant.
Former Australian federal MP George Christensen posted a report from NTD Television on January 8, 2026.
On January 8, George Christensen, a former Australian federal MP who has over 140,000 followers on Facebook, posted a report from NTD Television on the Chinese consulate’s statement. Many comments indicated that the CCP’s erroneous statement not only failed to deceive people, but also created a very effective advertisement for Shen Yun. In their comments some people recalled their wonderful experiences of watching Shen Yun’s performances over the years.
Shen Yun’s Oceania Tour Applauded by Elected Officials
2026 marks the 20th anniversary of Shen Yun Performing Arts. As part of it’s global tour Shen Yun’s eight companies will give performances in 21 countries and 170 cities, presenting the splendor of 5,000 years of ancient China’s divinely inspired culture to millions of audiences worldwide.
On February 22, 2026, Shen Yun New Era Company arrived in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia, to begin a 30-show tour of four major Australian cities starting on February 25.
Queensland MP Scott Buchholz warmly welcomed Shen Yun and praised its “universal values of kindness, courage, and hope.” New South Wales MP Tanya Davies congratulated Shen Yun Performing Arts on its 20th anniversary and encouraged its continued preservation of this beautiful culture. Other dignitaries also sent their congratulations, praising Shen Yun for encompassing virtues with 5,000 years of history, such as kindness, justice, wisdom, loyalty, and filial piety, and for its profound and positive impact on Australian society.
Queensland Federal MP Scott Buchholz recently sent a congratulatory letter welcoming Shen Yun and he hopes the people of Queensland cherish this rare opportunity to see Shen Yun. (NTD Television)
Tanya Davies, a Member of Parliament for New South Wales, Australia, congratulated Shen Yun Performing Arts on its 20th anniversary and praised the company for it’s outstanding contributions to the arts. (NTD Television)
For information about Shen Yun performances, please visit the official website: https://www.shenyun.com.
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