A chilling bomb threat written in Chinese against Anthony Albanese is behind a scare that forced the Lodge to be evacuated.
The threat, linked to the upcoming Australian tour of Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based classical Chinese dance company long targeted by Beijing, sparked an urgent, high-level security response.
Albanese was evacuated from his official Canberra residence on Tuesday night as police responded to a bomb threat, in circumstances a senior minister called ‘extraordinary’ and potentially unprecedented.
The prime minister was moved from The Lodge to another location at about 6pm while an investigation was carried out.
He was able to return after 9pm once a search had been completed.
The sinister email campaign did not just target Albanese; it also named several senior Australian officials.
In the days leading up to Shen Yun’s Wednesday opening, performers reportedly received a stream of threatening emails demanding cancellation of the event.
One message, reported by the Epoch Times, even claimed explosives had already been planted around the prime minister’s home and warned they would be detonated if the show proceeded.
Local Shen Yun presenters later revealed they had received an earlier Chinese‑language email on February 10.
‘If Shen Yun performance goes ahead something will happen to Anthony Albanese.’
The same email threatened the ‘personal safety of Anthony Albanese and all other Australian high officials.’
‘It doesn’t matter as long as you can afford the cost. I won’t try to talk you out of it anymore. Just don’t regret it later.’
A second email sent on February 22 escalated the threat, claiming ‘large quantities of nitroglycerin explosives’ had been placed inside the Lodge.
It warned that if the show proceeded, ‘the Prime Minister’s Lodge will be blown into ruins where blood flows like a river’.