Political Unrest Stops U.S. Tours by Chinese Performers : Culture: Chinese ministry canceled visits to the U.S. after the crackdown. And L.A. Festival organizers broke off talks with two groups.

A middle-level official in China’s Ministry of Culture has revealed that the ministry canceled all plans to send entertainers to the United States after the government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators in June. Meanwhile, planners of the Los Angeles Festival said Monday that they specifically cut off negotiations with at least two Chinese performing groups in the immediate wake of the Tian An Men Square massacre.

“When Tian An Men Square occurred, we decided we couldn’t have anyone come from China,” said Judith Mitoma, co-curator of the festival’s Pacific Rim groups. “By omitting them from the festival, we thought we would make a statement.

“This is not a boycott of Chinese artists at all,” said Mitoma, chairwoman of UCLA’s world arts and cultures department. She noted that revised plans for this year are to feature performances by American Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese or visiting students instead.

The Chinese ministry’s policy of not allowing entertainers in the United States was disclosed following inquiries about the cancellation of a tour by the Peking Acrobats, scheduled to perform at El Camino College in Torrance Jan. 31.

Betty Ferrell, promotions manager at South Bay Center for the Arts at El Camino, said she had already sold 25% of the seats for the acrobat show when she was notified in late October that the tour was canceled.

International Attractions, an organization that has produced touring Chinese acts for 15 years, informed Ferrell that the cancellation was “due to the current political situation in China.”

The troupe was booked for the 100-city tour more than a year ago, said Ingrid Kidd, a partner at International Attractions in La Jolla. Work permits for the United States and Canada also had been arranged for the 100-city tour, but Kidd said the final paper work for the entertainers was never issued by the Ministry of Culture.

“We were suspicious there would be problems after Tian An Men Square,” Kidd said. “Obviously we were watching very closely what was happening in China. . . .”

A representative from International Attractions visited Beijing three times between June and October, attempting to finalize the tour arrangements.

“They kept saying, ‘Yes, we want to do this,’ ” Kidd said, “but when it came time to sign the papers for the visas they would say, ‘Later.’ ” The final no came in early October.

Last week in Beijing, the Cultural Ministry denied that the Peking Acrobats had requested permission to go to the United States. “The Peking acrobats had never put in this request. And if they were going there they would have to do so through the ministry,” a spokesman said. A spokesman for the China Performing Arts Co., which represents the acrobats, said: “If something was canceled it could have been because of American attitude to China.”

But Kidd said American attitude toward Chinese acts has been “very supportive.”

“We did everything possible to make this happen. We had a million-and-a-half dollars invested. . . . We had many, many disappointed people because this (tour) isn’t happening.”

When the Peking Acrobats last toured the United States earlier this year, three women from the troupe disappeared in San Francisco in mid-May, just before Tian An Men Square, but did not seek political asylum. They were located by the FBI after the June massacre, but allowed to remain in the United States. They were last known to be living in San Jose.

At least two groups, the China Acrobats and the Kun Opera Troupe from Shanghai, were permitted to tour the United States in August. All 21 members of the acrobatic troupe have returned to China, according to the ministry. But the opera group, which the Chinese officials claimed to know nothing about, was also on tour in August when six male and two female members defected in San Francisco. They are apparently still in hiding somewhere in the United States.

Many provinces and cities in China have their own direct contacts with the United States, said the Ministry of Culture official, who indicated that the ministry may not hear about a tour going abroad until an agreement is reached between the foreign booking agency and the performing company. “They do need clearance through us,” the spokesman said. However, he could not recall any applications that are currently being considered.

There is an occasional exception to the unannounced post-June policy, but basically the ministry “has stopped issuing visas,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But three other ministry officials denied any change in the policy allowing performers to tour abroad, saying there was no decrease in the number of acts going to the United States or to other countries.

Any resumption of normal cultural ties “will depend on improved relationships between the two countries,” the official said.