After attending a production of Shen Yun Performing Arts at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre on April 11, 2026, David Matas remarked on the importance of combating the Chinese Communist Party’s transnational repression targeting Falun Gong. Notably, he remarked–

“…I would also say even more important is to combat the transnational repression against it, because what we see is the Chinese Communist Party has identified Falun Gong as its most prominent opposition force and [] one of the very important vehicles for that is Shen Yun, because it’s seen by so many people.

And the Chinese Communist Party has engaged in transnational repression, specifically against Shen Yun because of its communicative value, with bomb threats, with planted newspaper stories, and slashing tires and threatening people, threatening advertisers to get them to withdraw ads, threatening employees not to come to the performance, and so on. And I think that it’s an indication of not only how effective it is, but how important it is.”