The Colorado Times Recorder has published responses to its reprint of an article about how “Shen Yun Promotes Dance Performances in Colorado After Being Sued for Child Labor Violations,” highlighting a crisis that will come to a head as soon as all newspapers who employ paper boys and all movie producers who employ child actors are also “sued for child labor violations” (CTR Readers Respond, February 11, 2025). Excerpts:
Child performance versus child trafficking
“Young people performing in the arts, theatre and dance doing something they absolutely love is something very few people could get the chance to do. I guess according to your reporter the Olympics should be banned as well as school sports. There is real child trafficking going on that never gets any attention. The Communist party has been persecuting, killing Falun Gong and extracting their organs while they are alive. The CCP is now using lawfare against people who merely wish to bring goodness to the world.”
—Shanell Deater, Aurora, CO
Transnational repression
“The Chinese Communist Party [has been] using Western media and lawfare to persecute Falun Gong overseas. Some large and reputable media organizations have written hit pieces—please don’t join them. The truth is, Falun Gong practitioners are tortured and killed every day, and articles like the one you published help the communists to do it.”
—Court Pearman, Colorado Springs
The Epoch Times, published by members of Falun Gong, has at length defended Shen Yun against attacks by The New York Times and others and detailed the Chinese Communist Party’s worldwide campaign against Shen Yun for celebrating traditional Chinese culture “before communism.”
Shen Yun’s Jared Madsen says: “This is the biggest threat to the Chinese Communist Party. If people believe there’s something beyond the Chinese Communist Party, they believe there’s something higher…that’s a major threat to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Also see:
The Epoch Times: “CCP Targets Shen Yun Globally With Bomb Threats, Diplomatic Pressure” (February 6, 2025)
“After more than a decade of using diplomatic intimidation, Beijing is now primarily sending bomb and mass shooting threats to scare theaters and lawmakers.” (The map accompanying the Epoch Times article, illustrating “global incidents of the CCP’s efforts to sabotage Shen Yun performances,” is shown above.)
“Beijing has directed its ire at Shen Yun because of the company’s dazzling dance and musical performances that present traditional Chinese culture free of communist influence, under the tagline ‘China before communism.’
“The company was started by practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that includes meditative exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The CCP marked the practice for elimination in 1999 after learning that more people had begun learning Falun Gong than there were members of the Party itself.
“For the past 25 years, Falun Gong practitioners have faced brutal persecution involving imprisonment, torture, and even forced organ harvesting in China. Incessant harassment by the regime’s henchmen has extended to American soil.”
The Epoch Times: “State Department Condemns Intimidation Campaign Against Shen Yun, Urges Protection” (February 7, 2025)
The Epoch Times: “How The New York Times Distorts Shen Yun’s Success in Latest Attack Article” (December 31, 2024)
The Epoch Times: “Shen Yun Responds to New York Times Article ‘Riddled With Inaccuracies’ ” (November 18, 2024)
“Several whistleblowers who provided internal CCP information to the Falun Dafa Information Center—a nonprofit that tracks the persecution of Falun Gong—have independently identified the man [relied on as a source by the Times reporters] as a vehicle used by the CCP to spread ‘malicious’ information against Falun Gong.”
The Epoch Times: “New York Times Relies on Distortion, Omission in Effort to Smear Shen Yun” (August 18, 2024)
