New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has often faced pressure from Beijing and recently filled a Claremont, California, theater after an evacuation over a bomb threat that turned out to be untrue, according to The Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times reports that only hours before its last show at Pomona College’s Bridges Auditorium in Claremont, California, Shen Yun Performing Arts, which is well-known for its traditional Chinese dance, got a bomb threat.

Shen Yun is meant to highlight the thousands of years of traditional Chinese culture that predate the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

According to The Epoch Times, the threat email was one of around 100 that had been sent to the organization since the previous year with the intention of interfering with Shen Yun’s performances.

These moves against the group have been condemned by the State Department and the White House. Shortly before nine in the morning on March 30, Campus Safety at Claremont Colleges received the threatening email and immediately evacuated the facility.
Weeks before, a similar evacuation took place at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

According to a Claremont Police Department report in The Epoch Times, the safety officers called the municipal police and sent out canine units to look for explosives. In the end, the same report said, no explosives were found.

Shen Yun, who was founded in upstate New York in 2006, thinks the email threat is a part of a CCP-planned effort after being subjected to numerous disruptive attempts connected to the Chinese government, according to The Epoch Times.

Chinese diplomats have urged local officials to stay away from the performances and have sometimes phoned or written to theaters requesting that they cancel the presentations, threatening to withhold financial penalties if they do not comply.

According to the Epoch Times, the tires on a number of Shen Yun’s tour buses were cut, posing a risk to the artists’ safety.