Chinese consular officials met with a Vancouver city hall employee last month and urged her to cancel an arts event that highlighted communist party repression, sources told Global News.

At the meeting, representatives of China’s consulate told a staff member of the city’s civic theatres branch that they wanted a series of performances by the Shen Yun dance group to be stopped, the sources said.

The event, a celebration of Chinese cultural traditions lost under Communist rule, also received bomb threats, but went ahead anyway April 8-12 at the city-owned Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

But the incident suggests that China continues to use its diplomatic missions to silence dissent in Canada, even as Prime Minister Mark Carney pursues a detente with Beijing.

Canada’s intelligence agencies have alleged that China uses both diplomatic and foreign interference tactics, such as threats and harassment, to advance its interests overseas.

According to Public Safety Canada guidelines, “targeting any level of government to influence public policy or decision-making in a way that is clandestine, deceptive or threatening, and is contrary to Canadian interests” constitutes foreign interference.

Global News is not naming the city employee who met the consulate officials due to potential safety concerns.

Approaching Canadians in the diaspora, and who may have family members in China vulnerable to reprisals, is a common foreign interference tactic.

Beijing has long targeted Shen Yun, a New York-based performing arts group that has toured the world for the past two decades, and uses the banner “China before Communism.”

Through its consulates, Beijing has decried the Shen Yun shows as “anti-China propaganda” that are spreading the ideology of Falun Gong, a movement banned by Beijing as an “evil cult.”

A Vancouver city hall spokesperson confirmed that staff from Vancouver Civic Theatres (VCT), which falls under the city’s direction, met with representatives from the Chinese consulate in early April.

“During this meeting a range of cultural topics were discussed, including the Shen Yun production,” a city of Vancouver press spokesperson wrote in a statement in response to questions from Global News.

“Over the years, VCT has engaged with many organizations, individuals, consulates and community groups expressing differing perspectives on event content,” she added.

“Staff may, from time to time, meet with representatives of consulates for information-sharing purposes. These conversations are high-level and do not involve policy decisions or commitments.”

“VCT does not censor or limit lawful freedom of expression within its venues.”

The city would not answer questions about what the Chinese officials said to the city employee regarding Shen Yun, but sources told Global News that the consulate wanted the event cancelled.

“The mayor and council need to take this very seriously,” said former Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart, now an associate professor at the Simon Fraser University School of Public Policy.

“What’s worrying to me is the level of interference. Taking pot shots at politicians is one thing, but starting to infiltrate within the civil service and directly intimidating civil servants, I haven’t heard of that before,” he said.

“So this is perhaps an emboldened move by the consulate, if they are actively going in and trying to change city operations, bypassing politicians, bypassing political avenues and doing this internally.”

“That’s deeply worrying to me.”

The Chinese consulate did not respond to questions. The Vancouver municipal official in charge of the venue where the Shen Yun show was staged did not respond to phone and text messages.

Shen Yun may be known to most Canadians for the colourful flyers dropped in their mailboxes promoting their events, if not for the performances themselves.

But for the Chinese government, the show has become a preoccupation, according to an organization representing Falun Gong practitioners.

“Why is a proclaimed superpower afraid of a dance performance?” asked Joel Chipkar, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada.

As far back as 2011, the Chinese consul general in Vancouver urged then-mayor Gregor Robertson to boycott Shen Yun on the grounds that it was all “cult messages and political attacks,” Business in Vancouver reported.

During the foreign interference inquiry that delivered its report in 2025, members of the Canadian Falun Gong community testified about efforts to interfere in Shen Yun performances.

They spoke about bomb threats to venues and said Chinese consular officials had warned Shen Yun’s sponsors that their business with China would be impacted, and they would not be able to obtain travel visas.

“Chinese embassies and consulates around the world have tried to sabotage and prevent the show from performing in different parts of the world,” according to a report submitted to the inquiry.

Prior to the 2026 Shen Yun tour, Chinese consulates resumed their campaign, releasing statements urging countries to “reject the cult” and to instead attend “authentic” Chinese events.

Although Vancouver city staff did not acquiesce to the consulate’s alleged push to axe the shows, the sources said the employee who met with Chinese officials was upset about the encounter.

“For civil servants, it’s very worrying. They really have no defence against this. It’s elected officials who have to stand up for them,” Stewart, the former Vancouver mayor, said in an interview.

He said the city should order staff not to attend any further meetings with consular officials, and ask the federal government to investigate the incident.

“A letter has to go to Global Affairs asking for an investigation on this, and because this is repeated behaviour, Ottawa may want to review whether or not they should actually shut this consulate down,” he said.

“If it is this blatant and there’s this kind of pattern of interference with local affairs, maybe it’s best if all the interactions are through the official embassy in Ottawa.”

Before landing in Vancouver, Shen Yun performed in Toronto on March 28 without incident, but a threat on March 29 prompted the evacuation of the theatre.

Sent by email, it said explosives had been placed inside the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as on Parliament Hill.

The same email account sent another message the following day, warning that gunmen would enter the theatre disguised as audience members, shoot the performers and set fire to the venue.

“Just wait and see,” it said.

Toronto police told Global News the threats “were determined to be unfounded,” but the Canadian Opera Company, which owns the Four Seasons Centre, cancelled the remaining performances.

A spokesperson for the venue said the decision was made, “out of an abundance of caution, prioritizing the safety and well-being of our artists, audiences, and staff given the information, time, and resources available in that moment.”

Organizers announced on Monday that they had rescheduled the Toronto performances for June 24-28.

But at a recent Toronto screening of a documentary film about Shen Yun, attendees said the show should have gone on, since police had determined no genuine threat existed.

“We’ve been dealing with these kinds of targeted attacks for a very long time, not only in Canada, but in Europe, in Asia,” said Sunni Zhou, a Shen Yun dancer who grew up in Mississauga.

Each time, the threats were deemed false, she said. “We want to keep fighting because what we’re doing here is so amazing,” Zhou said. “No matter how hard it is, it’s always worth it at the end.”

Steve Lance, the executive producer of the film, Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun, said bomb threats also led to the evacuation of a performance in Taiwan.

“But the show goes on because at the end of the day, we know where these threats are coming from. They’re coming from China. They’re not credible, and they’re really just meant to cause panic and terror.”

In February, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated from his official residence after receiving a threat to blow it up unless he cancelled the Shen Yun shows in the country.

“It’s really a form of terrorism, and not in the sense of an actual bomb threat, but to terrorize people and drive fear in them and prevent them from going out to their local theatre to see a performance.”

He said Shen Yun is targeted because it showcases traditional Chinese culture “rooted in divinity and moral principles.”

The Chinese Communist Party, which is atheist, therefore views it as a threat, he said.

The week Shen Yun was to open in Vancouver, an email arrived on April 2 that said a “large quantity” of ammonium nitrate explosives and a remote detonation device “have been placed.”

“Please immediately cancel all future Shen Yun performances,” it continued. Otherwise, the explosives would be detonated, read the email, which was reported to the Vancouver Police Department.

Police determined it was a hoax. Cybercrime officers found that the email address used to send the message was associated with a phone number in China, an officer told event organizers.

As a precaution, a bomb sniffing dog checked the theatre and found no explosives. In contrast to Toronto, the shows went ahead despite the alleged objections from the Chinese consulate.

There is no evidence that the threats come directly from the Chinese government, but Beijing’s demonization of the show and of the Falun Gong may well have been contributing factors.

Further, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service identified the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as recently as Friday as one of the “main perpetrators of foreign interference” in the country, along with India, Russia, Iran and Pakistan.

“PRC foreign interference is wide-ranging. It targets all levels of government,” the report of the Hogue foreign interference commission said, adding Beijing seeks to “control and influence Chinese diaspora communities, shape international opinions and influence politicians to support PRC policies.”

While Ottawa has pushed back against Beijing’s meddling in Canadian affairs, U.S. President Donald Trump’s predatory trade policies have prompted Carney to court President Xi Jinping.

Dissidents, however, are warning that they are experiencing increased harassment and that Carney’s reengagement with Xi may have emboldened China to continue targeting them.

“The Canadian government is encouraging the Chinese dictator Xi Jinping to do whatever he wants, whatever he needs. And he knows that, clearly,” said human rights activist Sheng Xue.

Likely because of her activism, Xue said she was regularly targeted, including having her email address used in threats to attack venues hosting Shen Yun performances.

She said Carney’s policy was sending the message that it was okay to work with China, since the prime minister was doing so, and that some would take it as a green light to help the communist party exert influence in the community.

Canadian political leaders should be standing beside those who are persecuted by China, such as pro-democracy activists, Falun Gong, Tibetans and Uyghurs, Xue said.

“There are so many, but I’m so sorry that our prime minister, he chose to stand beside Xi Jinping,” she said.

“It is, of course, totally wrong.”

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to questions.

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca