Foreign Ministry in talks with Chinese Embassy underlines respect for freedom of speech and artistic expression in Latvia

RIGA - The Latvian Foreign Ministry in talks with the Chinese Embassy has raised the issue of Shen Yun dance and music company's upcoming performance at the Dailes Theater in Latvia, noting that Latvia respects the freedom of speech and artistic expression, the ministry's spokeswoman Diana Eglite told LETA.

According to Eglite, in the practice of international relations, "diplomats articulate and explain their country's positions and create awareness of the country's policies". "The limits of diplomatic activity are defined by the Vienna Convention, which obliges diplomats to respect the laws and regulations of the host country and not to interfere in the internal affairs of the host country," the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stressed.

As reported, TV3 commercial channel's analytical news program Neka Personiga (Nothing Personal) reported last Sunday that the Chinese Embassy in Riga attempted to stop the Daile Theater from allowing the Shen Yun dance and music company, which is affiliated with the religious organization Falun Gong, to give a guest performance at the theater. Falun Gong has been designated a cult and banned in China.

At the end of November, the theater's director Juris Zagars received from the Chinese Embassy a letter, "kindly reminding" that at the end of 1999, the Chinese government banned Falun Gong and advised to reconsider the performance.

Zagars told the TV program that the letter was not responded to, considering the attempt by a country's embassy to influence the theater's repertoire as totally unacceptable. In addition to the invitation to reconsider the performance, an invitation to meet with a representative of the Chinese Embassy to discuss the possibilities of cooperation was also received, without specifying what kind of cooperation was in question.

This was the first time in the history of the Daile Theater that an embassy of another country had tried to influence its work. Such an action would violate the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations. However, this is not the first such action by China. In 2019, for example, the Chinese ambassador to Spain personally visited the Royal Opera House in Madrid to make the director to cancel scheduled performances.