
 
 Jon Bon Jovi performing in front of an image of the Dalai Lama in 2011 (YouTube Screenshot) 
 
 This post has been updated. 
 
 Later this month, the American rock band Bon Jovi was due to play its first shows in mainland China, with concerts planned in Beijing, Shanghai, and Macau. The band's namesake singer, Jon Bon Jovi, celebrated the news by recording a famous Chinese love song in Mandarin, a move that endeared him greatly to fans. 
 
 However, just a week before the first concert, promoter AEG Live Asia has announced that the dates in Beijing and Shanghai have been cancelled. The problem? According to a number of sources, the band's performance permits have been pulled. Bon Jovi appears to be the latest American act to run afoul with China's notoriously opaque Ministry of Culture, the body that approves or denies performances and releases by musicians and others. 
 
 One source who works in the Chinese music industry says that the permit problem appears to have stemmed from a 2009 music video that featured imagery from the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. 
 
 The same source suggested that a video of a 2011 video that showed Bon Jovi performing in front of images of the Dalai Lama, along with other important figures, may also have caught the Ministry of Culture's attention. 
 
 Bon Jovi's management was unable to provide comment at the time of writing. In a statement, promoter AEG Live Asia, announced that the shows had been cancelled "due to unforeseen reasons" and that there would be a full refund to anyone who bought tickets. "We would like to apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment that this will cause," the statement says. 
 
 The news follows a summer of trouble for Western acts in China. In July, the Los Angeles-based band Maroon 5 canceled shows planned in Beijing and Shanghai in September. There was no official reason given for the change in Maroon 5's plans, but many speculated that permits had been pulled after Jesse Carmichael, the band's keyboard player, attended the Dalai Lama's birthday party in California and tweeted about it. China regards the Tibetan spiritual leader as a separatist due to his calls for autonomy for the Himalayan region. 
 
 Less than a month later, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift faced scrutiny after planning to sell merchandise featuring her initials and the name of her album,"1989," direct to fans in China. There was no political message intended by Swift's merchandize, but in China the events might be seen as reference to the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989, where hundreds if not thousands of civilians were killed when the Chinese army moved in to clear the square. 
 
 Western performers in China have sparked political controversies before: In 2008, Icelandic singer Bjork was criticized by the Ministry of Culture after she chanted pro-Tibet slogans at a concert in Shanghai. A number of musical acts, including American singer Bob Dylan and British band Oasis, subsequently had to cancel tours due to their perceived political leanings. 
 
 However, those involved in organizing the events say there seems to have been an unusually high number of events canceled at the last minute this year. “This put the fear into all of us,” Archie Hamilton, a festival promoter in Beijing, told the Associated Press in May. “Everyone’s afraid of getting it wrong and losing a lot of money." 
 
 For some Chinese music fans, the news that yet another act had cancelled their shows hit hard. "I booked flight tickets from Shenzhen to Shanghai in June [when tickets went on sale]," a fan complained on Weibo. "No words I've learned could express how crushed I am." Others complained, perhaps sarcastically, that it was the Dalai Lama's fault. 
 
 "Better go abroad if you want to go to concerts," one exasperated fan wrote. "Too risky in China." 
 
 Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report. 
 
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 How Justin Bieber inadvertently stepped into one of the world’s greatest geopolitical controversies ||||| Ageing rock band Bon Jovi has had the plug pulled on its first concerts in China after officials learnt that a picture of the Dalai Lama had featured in a video backdrop in a concert five years ago. 
 
 The abrupt cancellation of two concerts next week in Shanghai and Beijing — with tickets ranging from Rmb480 to Rmb3,880 ($75 to $600) — makes the enduring American rockers the latest musicians to fall foul of Chinese sensitivities. 
 
 The illustrious list includes Icelandic singer Björk and Maroon 5, which had its Shanghai concert cancelled earlier this year. That followed a band member’s tweet about meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader. Twitter is also banned in China. 
 
 The Communist party’s Culture Ministry acted after discovering that Bon Jovi once included a picture of the Dalai Lama in a video backdrop during a concert in Taiwan in 2010, according to people familiar with the matter. 
 
 China’s leaders revile the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader as a “splittist” and a “wolf in monk’s robes”, and accuse him of advocating Tibetan independence from his base in neighbouring India. 
 
 The Chinese government regularly bans artists, academics and political leaders from going to China if they are seen as supportive of the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan independence movement. 
 
 Sino-British relations were put into the diplomatic deep freeze for more than a year after British Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai Lama in 2012. 
 
 On Tuesday concert organisers were desperately trying to convince officials to relent on the Bon Jovi concerts but the chances of Beijing overturning the cancellation order are slim, according to people familiar with the matter. 
 
 A representative from AEG, the promoter of the Bon Jovi concerts in China, said it was unable to comment on the cancellation order as it was waiting for more information. 
 
 In an interview with Chinese state media before the Culture Ministry cancellation order, frontman Jon Bon Jovi described the band’s music as being about “individual freedom and expression”. The band’s upcoming album is called Burning Bridges. 
 
 Tibet’s Panchen Lama ‘living normal life’, says China Beijing insists revered Buddhist figure detained aged 6 in 1995 ‘does not wish to disturbed’ Read more 
 
 The issue of Tibet is especially sensitive now as the ruling Communist party holds celebrations, amid extremely tight security, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, which came under direct Chinese control in the early 1950s. 
 
 As part of the celebrations, a top Chinese official vowed on Monday to “crack down on separatist forces” in Tibet and “fight a protracted battle” against the “Dalai clique”. 
 
 Björk has been banned from China for life after she chanted “Tibet, Tibet” during her song “Declare Independence” in a concert in Shanghai in 2008. 
 
 Other celebrities who are not welcome in China because of their real or perceived sympathy towards Tibet and the Dalai Lama include Richard Gere, Sharon Stone and Brad Pitt. 
 
 It was unclear whether concertgoers would receive refunds if the concerts do not go ahead.
– It seems the Dalai Lama has indirectly led to the disappointment of Chinese concertgoers once again. One week before Bon Jovi was to play a three-city tour of China—the band's first-ever shows in the country—two of the shows were mysteriously canceled, the Washington Post reports. This despite Jon Bon Jovi having already recorded a love song in Mandarin for the occasion. Concert promoter AEG Live Asia cited "unforeseen circumstances," but reports are putting the blame on China's Ministry of Culture, which pulled Bon Jovi's permits after seeing a video of the band performing in front of images of the Dalai Lama in 2010 or 2011, reports the Financial Times. However, a 2009 Bon Jovi music video featuring images from the Tiananmen Square protest could also have been problematic, per the Post. Concert organizers are trying to get the decision reversed, but that's unlikely, notes the Times. "No words I've learned could express how crushed I am," one disappointed Chinese Bon Jovi fan posted on social media, per the Post. Chinese Maroon 5 fans know the feeling: Adam Levine and Co. also lost their permits this summer, with a band member's tweet about attending the Dalai Lama's birthday party in California the likely culprit. Taylor Swift likewise ran into trouble for planning to sell merch featuring her initials and 1989 album title; Tiananmen Square took place in 1989, notes the Post.