Beijing regularly organizes dance performances in the U.S., using each occasion to build relationships with high-level Americans in the arts and in government.
Lawmakers warned the Kennedy Center against “subsidizing CCP propaganda” as it hosted a Chinese government–backed ballet performance last week. A few days later, a top executive from the U.S.-funded arts institution attended a dinner at the Chinese embassy.
The National Ballet of China performed at the prominent Washington, D.C., venue from January 29 to February 2, a show billed as a celebration of the Chinese New Year. Beijing regularly organizes performances by government-backed dance troupes at prominent U.S. venues, using each occasion to build relationships with high-level Americans in the arts and in government.
Kennedy Center Vice President Alicia Adams attended a high-level “ballet night” dinner at China’s embassy the evening of the final performance, according to a post on the diplomatic outpost’s website. Another attendee was Chase Robinson, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.
During the event, a small group of attendees were treated to a private performance by the National Ballet of China. Adams sat next to Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng as he delivered a speech explaining that the partnership between the center and the Chinese ballet group would help “write a new chapter in Sino–U.S. cultural exchanges,” per pictures posted to the embassy website.
Another picture posted to the embassy’s website appears to show a guest leaving the dinner with a gift bag in her hands.
Adams attended the dinner days after the Kennedy Center responded to a letter from Representatives Chris Smith and John Moolenaar, who warned that “subsidizing CCP propaganda and implicitly endorsing Xi Jinping’s war on artists and intellectuals” is not “responsible stewardship” of taxpayer funds.
Although most performances at the center are privately funded, the Kennedy Center receives millions of dollars in public funds every year for maintenance purposes. The center was established by an act of Congress that created it as a memorial to John F. Kennedy, and its board of trustees is appointed by the president.
The lawmakers, chairmen of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and of the House Select Committee on the CCP, expressed concern that U.S. funds are supporting one of the Chinese government’s efforts to soften its image in America as it continues to brutally crack down on political dissidents.
Smith and Moolenaar cited Beijing’s penchant for using cultural performances to advance China’s authoritarian aims. They wrote in their letter that three of the National Ballet’s five leaders are members of the Communist Party, and that its director, Feng Ying, has served as a participant in key organizations of the regime. “Hence, the National Ballet of China clearly is part of the CCP’s political machinery,” they wrote.
And despite Xie’s rhetoric about how Chinese government–backed performances promote cultural bridge-building and mutual understanding between the two countries, Beijing often uses such opportunities to lobby for its preferred policies and to undermine the federal government’s work against malign Chinese actions.
In a response on January 29, Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said that the law establishing the venue bars congressionally appropriated funds from being used to support specific performances and that, therefore, funding for the shows that it hosts comes from ticket sales, donations, and other revenue sources.
“The Kennedy Center has always presented artists from across the world, and it is vital to our mission as the National Cultural Center to present both American and international artists on our stages,” Rutter wrote. She wrote that a previous performance at the center involving dancers from the National Ballet of China, in 2024, was part of an initiative called “Final Bow for Yellowface” — a program that works to “create Asian representations that are culturally meaningful and engaging to all audiences.”
Rutter told the lawmakers that this is the fourth time that the National Ballet of China has performed at the Kennedy Center in 20 years. She also pointed to Kennedy Center performances involving Taiwanese artists, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, as well as Shen Yun, the Falun Gong dance troupe often targeted by pro-Beijing harassment campaigns.