Beijing Fails to Stop Independent Chinese Cultural Show in UK

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Chinese authorities like to tightly control the message about China, even when it's a cultural message. That's why they've tried to extend their reach into the UK--in an attempt last month to stop an independent Chinese cultural show, Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Chinese Communist Party is trying to stop artistic freedom in the UK. That's what a group of speakers said at a panel in London's West End last week.

[Peter Graham, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts]:
"I think it's completely out of line that a foreign embassy should try and influence what is happening with the artistic world in London, because we are proud of this tradition of being able to support arts."

The issue is over Shen Yun Performing Arts, a classical Chinese dance and music company that's set to perform at the London Coliseum in mid-April.

The show is being presented in London by the Falun Dafa Association. Last month, the theater told the presenters that the Chinese Embassy had contacted them to try to get the theater to cancel the show. The Embassy was unsuccessful.

[Rosemary Byfield, Falun Dafa Association Spokesperson]:
"This is not the first time this has happened. Shen Yun performed in London last year at the same theater, and before that performance the embassy again tried to persuade the theater to cancel."

In the last five years, over 40 cases have been documented of the Chinese Communist Party trying to stop Shen Yun from performing at various venues throughout the world.

[Ethan Gutmann, Investigative Journalist]:
"There's the case in Canada where the tires were slashed on a bus, slashed not to the point... only to the point they would burst once the bus carrying the Shen Yun performers reached highway speed."