STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Despite frigid temperatures in Sweden, the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular continues its successful run at Stockholm's Circus Theater.
During the intermission of Tuesday's show, The Epoch Times spoke with Goran Lindblad, Member of Swedish Parliament and head of the Swedish Delegation for the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.
Lindblad is also Chairman of the Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, the most important committee of the assembly as it deals with issues such as democracy and rule of law, he said.
Lindblad, who initiated a "Condemn Communist Crimes" resolution in the European Parliament in 2005, commented on the Chinese Communist Party's reaction to the Spectacular.
"I think it's a good show. I think it has a strong message in some of the acts. That message of course makes the communist regime not want us to have the show, and that's understandable, because it's a terrible regime that tries to repress every different kind of opinion, whatever opinion it is that is not in line with the Party," said Lindblad.
"Therefore the show is important. It will tell people all over the world that there is another way of thinking, even among Chinese."
The "message" Lindblad is referring to is a depiction of the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party. It's a message the CCP has gone to great lengths to prevent people from seeing, using political pressure to intimidate venues to cancel shows this year in Denmark, South Korea and Malaysia.
According to Lindblad, the Chinese Embassy also tried to intimidate him into not seeing the Spectacular.
"They always interfere. They called me before a conference I was going to in May and asked me not to go and said that they advise me not to go.
"So I sent a press release immediately, and it blew up right in their face. So they try all the time and they try intimidation. That's the communist way of doing things."
"I had telephone calls on my telephone for 4 or 5 weeks at 3 o'clock in the morning, from two signals. I can't prove it's the Chinese, but it probably is. The Vietnamese acted the same way when I had been in Vietnam meeting some dissidents."
Lindblad feels strongly that officials who are pressured by the Chinese communist regime overseas should expose their actions to their countries' media.
"The embassy can do whatever, they are only following orders, but we should always—every time they do something like that—make it public and tell the press.
"That's what we should do, because that's what in the long run makes them very upset. And that's a good thing. That's what I'm going to do, and continue to do."
For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit: www.DivinePerformingArts.org
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Chinese Spectacular. For our complete coverage please visit: http://en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008/
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