Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was compelled to evacuate his official residence Tuesday night time after a bomb threat was made towards him by opponents of a spiritual group that’s banned in China.
The prime minister posted a photograph of his canine, Toto, contained in the Lodge, his residence in Canberra, to social media Wednesday, thanking Australian police and saying, “Toto on alert but all good.”
He later stated such threats can’t be “taken for granted.”
“I think it’s just a reminder, take every opportunity to tell people, turn the heat down for goodness sake. Like, you know, we can’t take these things for granted. Turn it down,” Albanese stated throughout an occasion in Melbourne.
The bomb threats had been made forward of performances in Australia by Shen Yun, a classical Chinese music and dance group that’s backed by the Falon Gong spiritual motion.
The Falun Gong emerged in China within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, surging in recognition earlier than it was banned and brutally suppressed on the mainland for its protests towards the Chinese authorities.
Two emails, written in Chinese and seen by NCS, threatened hurt towards the Australian prime minister if Shen Yun’s upcoming reveals went forward, and falsely claimed that explosives had been positioned at Albanese’s residence.
The emails had been despatched to the dance group’s host group, the Falun Dafa Association, on February 10 and February 22, in accordance to a spokesperson for the group’s Australia department.
“All threats have been reported to Australian national security and law enforcement authorities. We appreciate the steps taken to ensure public safety and to protect elected officials, including the Prime Minister,” the Falun Dafa Association of Australia stated in a press release.
“The coordinated pattern of bomb threats, death threats, and systematic intimidation constitutes more than harassment — it reflects tactics consistent with state-sponsored intimidation designed to silence dissent beyond China’s borders.”
Australian Federal Police stated it responded to an “alleged security incident” within the capital space at about 6 p.m. native time on Tuesday.
“A thorough search of a protection establishment was undertaken and nothing suspicious was located,” a police spokesperson stated. “There is no current threat to the community or public safety.”
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher advised Australia’s “Today” program that these working on the prime minister’s residence “had to be removed for a couple of hours until police searched it and ensured that it was safe for people to return.”
The emails threatening the Australian prime minister are comparable to different emails acquired from native Shen Yun dance presenters in a number of international locations over the previous two weeks, together with in South Korea, Denmark and Austria, Leeshai Lemish, a Shen Yun narrator based mostly within the United States, advised NCS.
Lemish stated his group has tracked about 200 comparable threats towards them since March 2024 they usually all comply with a “pattern of harassment and sabotage of performances.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated it “consistently opposed all kinds of violent attacks.”
“It must be pointed out that the so-called Shen Yun performances are by no means normal cultural activities, but rather a political tool used by the Falun Gong organization to spread cult information and amass money,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated in a press briefing Wednesday.
Beijing continuously denounces Falun Gong as “a notorious anti-humanity, anti-society and anti-science cult, which has been outlawed by the Chinese government.”
In January, the Chinese consulates in Sydney and Melbourne issued statements attacking Shen Yun and urging Australians to keep away from the group’s reveals.
The Sydney Consulate warned the performances had been a “political tool used by ‘Falun Gong’ to exploit the Australian public’s appreciation of Chinese culture and respect for multiculturalism” by “disseminating anti-China narratives and cult ideology.”
Falun Dafa describes itself as a “peaceful spiritual practice rooted in the Buddhist tradition” and its Shen Yun performing arts group has a “mission of reviving 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture.”