Democrat sounds alarm over commie bomb threats

WASHINGTON—An escalating Chinese campaign aimed at silencing a U.S. arts group was brought up at an April 17 hearing on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) political warfare against the United States.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) raised the alarm over the recent fake bomb threats targeting New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts, whose slogan “China before communism,” has made it a target of Beijing for nearly two decades.

Ms. Norton cited emails sent to theater officials threatening mass shootings and bombings if they refused to cancel Shen Yun’s performances, as well as multiple instances in which the tires on Shen Yun’s tour buses had been slashed. While the bomb and shooting threats turned out to be empty threats, the bus tires were slashed in such a way they would have exploded when driven at speed, had the sabotage not been discovered.

“What could the United States be doing to protect this group?” Ms. Norton asked hearing witness Peter Mattis, president of think tank Jamestown Foundation.

The United States has to “actively be investigating those as crimes,” Mr. Mattis said.

“They have to be a priority for investigative resources not simply for local police departments, but also for federal law enforcement,” he told the lawmakers.

“When we see those actions, they are frankly criminal acts by a foreign government against our people on our soil. This is something that has to be prioritized with a response in the bilateral relationship with the PRC, rather than a shoulder shrug, or something that we can quietly say that we talked about later,” he said, using the acronym for People’s Republic of China.

Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) said he sees the campaign as a part of a broader Chinese influence operation for dominance.

“It fits within what we’ve seen about using intimidation tactics, about just the moral impetus of unrestricted warfare, where you’re doing whatever you can to exert your political will, regardless of what inalienable rights that people should have,” he told The Epoch Times after the hearing.

“We want people to prosper under the principles of freedom that allow us to be prosperous and free here at home for centuries. We'd love to see that everywhere all over the world. But the CCP’s goals do not align with that objective.”
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/lawmaker-asks-how-us-can-protect-shen-yun-against-malign-ccp-campaign-5618619?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy