CCP Deletes Questions on Shen Yun Bomb Threat From Official Press Conference Transcript
Udumbara
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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has edited a transcript of a press conference that mentioned the recent bomb threat that forced Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to be evacuated.
During her daily press call on Feb. 25, CCP Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning responded to a question regarding the incident by mischaracterising and criticising the New York-based group.
Mao claimed it was a political tool used by the spiritual movement Falun Gong to disseminate “anti-China narratives,” and accused it of “making financial gains under the guise of promoting traditional Chinese culture.”
She also claimed the performance to be “a distortion and desecration of Chinese culture, and represents deception, manipulation, and harm to audiences,” saying the CCP believed “the Australian people are able to distinguish right from wrong.”
Yet that edict did not appear to filter down to the the CCP Embassy in Australia, which went on to publish the entire exchange on its Facebook page.
Days earlier, the two threats were delivered to the Australian Federal Police.
The first Chinese-language email threatened the “personal safety of Anthony Albanese and all other Australian high officials” if Shen Yun’s performance were to go ahead.
A second email went further and claimed: “Large quantities of nitroglycerin explosives have been placed around the Australian prime minister’s Lodge, located on Adelaide Avenue in the Deakin area of Canberra, Australia.
“If you insist on proceeding with the performance, then the prime minister’s Lodge will be blown into ruins and blood will flow like a river.”
Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and through the medium of classical Chinese dance, showcases 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation. Many artists are practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, which has suffered a severe persecution in China for nearly 27 years.
