The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Taichung City Government received bomb threats this week, as the Shen Yun Performing Arts dance troupe began its tour of Taiwan in Keelung on Thursday.
The council’s Civil Ethics Office yesterday reported an e-mail sent to the council’s public opinion mailbox threatening to bomb the north office of the Central United Office Building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正) if the Shen Yun performances were not canceled.
Safety inspections have already begun at the building, and officers are tracking the sender’s IP address, the Taipei Police Department said.
Photo: AFP
Security checks have been conducted on all floors of the north and south buildings, and no dangerous items have been found, reports said.
The National Police Agency’s Sixth Special Police Corps has been assigned to enhance security measures.
The Taichung Cultural Affairs Bureau on Wednesday received a similar threat that a bomb would be detonated at Taichung’s Chung Shan Hall (中山堂) if performances scheduled for April 2 to 4 continued.
The Taichung Police Department’s Second Precinct was immediately notified, and dispatched officers and a forensic team to the scene.
The Taichung Criminal Investigation Corps also deployed a police canine unit with bomb-detection dogs for assistance.
No dangerous items or suspicious individuals were found.
Security measures and patrols have been increased around Chung Shan Hall to ensure public safety, Second Precinct Chief Chung Cheng-chih (鍾承志) said.
Shen Yun was founded by practitioners of Falun Gong, a school of Chinese qigong (氣功) which incorporates tenets of Buddhism. It was founded by Li Hongzhi (李洪志) in China in 1992.
Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The Shen Yun Performing Arts group was founded by practitioners in 2006 and specializes in performances that blend classical Chinese dance with ethnic and folk dance.
The group has toured around the globe, although it often faces threats from China, which aims to obstruct performances or pressure venues to refuse to host the group.
No attacks have yet occurred and many of the threats have since been confirmed as hoaxes.
The source of this week’s threats is yet to be identified.
Shen Yun’s current tour, titled “China Before Communism,” is to travel to eight counties and cities throughout Taiwan until April 27.
Additional reporting by CNA
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