AUSTIN, Tex.—The theatre manager of a performing arts venue here recently received an email that made him pause and scratch his head.

Purporting to be from the organizers of a classical Chinese dance company soon to perform at his venue, the Long Center for the Performing Arts, the email made a series of claims bizarre enough to lead the theatre to contact the organizers directly.

The organizers didn’t send the email, but argue that it reflects the latest in the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to spread propaganda against those who it considers to be its enemies overseas.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, the classical Chinese dance company that will put on two shows in Austin on Aug. 7 , has been targeted by the CCP since its inception. The company draws on ancient Chinese traditions that have been all but wiped out in China, and is supported internationally by Falun Gong, a group also relentlessly attacked and persecuted in China.

Initially, Chinese embassies tried the blunt approach of direct dissuasion; but theatre owners in the US did not respond favorably, and some even went public with their indignation. Beginning this year, the Chinese communists stepped up the sophistication, and are now sending emails purporting to be from Falun Gong practitioners themselves, giving outlandish pronouncements that would make anyone’s eyebrows raise.

Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline consisting of moral principles and slow-motion physical exercises, has been persecuted in China since 1999.

Mr. Li, who is in charge of hosting Shen Yun Performing Arts in Austin, says that the email he was shown by the theatre looked a lot like other harassing emails received by other theatres hosting Shen Yun shows. Typically, the email initially affects being from a Falun Gong standpoint, but then includes out-of-context quotes from Falun Gong’s spiritual teacher, moral exhortations meant to confuse, and a good dose of nonsense.

In the recent email sent to the Long Center, the sender, who identified himself as Haichao Jian, referred at length to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Jian then asked the theater to appeal to the audience of Shen Yun to follow the teaching of Falun Gong, then somehow linked it back to an improvement in the oil spill.

“This email is another way to threaten the theater,” said Mr. Li, the local Shen Yun organizer. “Similar emails or letters have also being received by other theaters where Shen Yun previously performed.”

Before this latest incident many of the theaters where Shen Yun was scheduled to perform also received letters from Chinese consulates, or suspected Chinese operatives, before the shows started. In those cases the letters often threatened the theater or asked them to cancel Shen Yun’s shows. In the recent case the goal appears to have been more subtle: to make the venue uncomfortable about Shen Yun generally, according to Mr. Li.

Mr. Li notes that since January, when media reports emerged in Houston embarrassing the Chinese Consulate for sending emails to the Robinson Center Music Hall in Little Rock, Arkansas, the consulates stopped sending out letters in their own names. “The Chinese regime began to use secret agents to perform these low tricks,” Mr. Li said.

“The theater knows the quality of the performance and the nature of the Shen Yun host. It will not be fooled,” said Mr. Li confidently. “As a matter of fact, the theater has high expectance of the show and their staff is working hard to get ready for Shen Yun’s arrival.”

The efforts of Chinese propagandists have done little to dampen enthusiasm for Shen Yun in the US. On July 29, Lee Jeffingwell, Mayor of the City of Austin Texas, proclaimed August 7 as “Shen Yun Performing Day.” In the proclamation the Mayor said: “We are pleased to welcome Shen Yun Performing Arts to Austin to share the beauty, kindness, compassion, wisdom and courage of the Chinese people with our community.”

Of the email received by the Long Center, Mr. Li said that he forwarded it directly to the FBI.

Read the original Chinese article.