Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was forced to evacuate his official residence on Tuesday night after receiving a bomb threat from opponents of a banned religious group in China.
On Wednesday, the prime minister posted a photo of his dog Toto, who is kept at his Canberra lodge, on social media, thanking Australian police and saying, “Toto is alert but OK.”
He later said such threats could not be “taken for granted.”
“I think this is just a reminder. Take every opportunity to tell people, just to be safe, turn the fire down. You know, we can’t take these things for granted. Let’s turn the fire down,” Ms Albanese said during an event in Melbourne.
The bomb threat was made ahead of a performance in Australia by Shen Yun, a classical Chinese music and dance group backed by the religious movement Falun Gong.
Falun Gong emerged in China in the mid-1990s and soared in popularity before being banned and brutally suppressed on the mainland due to protests against the Chinese government.
Two emails seen by CNN, written in Chinese, threatened to harm the Australian prime minister if Shen Yun’s future performances were forced, and falsely claimed that an explosive device had been placed at Albanese’s residence.
A spokesperson for the group’s Australian branch said the emails were sent to the dance group’s sponsor organization, the Falun Dafa Association, on February 10 and February 22.
“All threats have been reported to Australia’s national security and law enforcement authorities. We appreciate the steps taken to ensure public safety and protect elected officials, including the Prime Minister,” the Australian Falun Dafa Association said in a statement.
“This coordinated pattern of bomb threats, death threats, and organized intimidation is more than mere harassment; it reflects tactics consistent with state-sponsored intimidation aimed at silencing dissent beyond China’s borders.”
The Australian Federal Police said it responded to a “public security incident” in the capital region around 6pm local time on Tuesday.
A police spokesperson said: “A thorough search of the shelter was carried out but nothing suspicious was found.” “There is currently no threat to the community or public safety.”
Finance Minister Katie Gallagher told Australia’s Today program that people working in Downing Street “had to be removed for several hours while police searched and confirmed it was safe for people to return.”
Leeshai Remish, a Shen Yun narrator based in the United States, told CNN that the email threatening the Australian prime minister is similar to other emails he has received from local Shen Yun dance presenters in several countries, including South Korea, Denmark and Austria, over the past two weeks.
Remish said his group has tracked about 200 similar threats against them since March 2024, all of which follow a “pattern of harassment and performance disruption.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said it “consistently opposes 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 political tools used by Falun Gong organizations to spread cult information and collect funds,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The Chinese government frequently denounces Falun Gong as a “notorious anti-humanitarian, anti-social and anti-scientific cult that has been outlawed by the Chinese government.”
In January, the Chinese embassies in Sydney and Melbourne issued a statement attacking Shen Yun and urging Australians to avoid Shen Yun performances.
The Sydney Consulate General warned that the performance was a “political tool used by Falun Gong to exploit the Australian public’s perception of Chinese culture and respect for multiculturalism” by “spreading anti-China rhetoric and cult ideology”.
Falun Dafa describes itself as a “peaceful spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist tradition,” and its Shen Yun Performing Arts Company’s mission is “to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture.”
