In the past few days, The Epoch Times has published several reports about Falun Gong practitioners being attacked by Chinese consulate-incited trouble makers in Flushing, New York. Now the communist regime has extended its harassment to customers of the newspaper.
The harassment started after the recent earthquake devastated parts of Sichuan in China. According to sources, the harassment was orchestrated by Zhou Yongkang, head of the Chinese regime's spy network, in order to shift people's focus from the question of whether the regime had received accurate earthquake predictions but failed to warn the general public.
Mainland media all reported that Falun Gong practitioners interfered with earthquake relief donations organized by Chinese living in New York.
In the past several days, many Epoch Times distribution sites in Flushing have been watched by pro-Beijing supporters, some of them threatening passers-by if they took a newspaper.
Despite continued harassment, the number of Epoch Times newspapers distributed in Flushing has actually increased in the last several days; what used to normally take a whole day to distribute is now finished by noon.
Epoch Times Advertisers Threatened
According to Ms. Wang of the Epoch Times advertising department, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) recently started to harass and threaten the newspaper's advertising customers. But despite the pressure, only a few withdrew their advertisements while many new customers came in.
After May 17, some customers said they had received offers from other Chinese newspapers such as the World Journal, Mingpao Daily and Sing Tao Daily around the same time.
They were offered three months free advertising with the condition that they withdraw their contracts with The Epoch Times . These customers said they would not withdraw their business with the newspaper because of it.
According to some customers, pro-communist agitators surrounded their offices and insulted them. Some of them were frightened, and some considered calling the police. Despite the threats, they still indicated that they will continue advertising with The Epoch Times.
CCP Incites Flushing Mobs
Voice of Justice
On May 25, The Epoch Times received a phone call from Mr. Yang, a customer who said he had just received a phone call from someone named Chen Maiguo.
Yang says Maiguo warned him not to put ads in The Epoch Times because it is an anti-communist paper. Yang was busy at the time and asked for his telephone number. The man left Yang with the number of The Epoch Times office.
"What kind of person is he, why didn't he dare to leave his own number, is it because he intended to have me harass The Epoch Times ? I simply want to place an advertisement with The Epoch Times ; I am doing business, and I don't care about anti-communist or not," said Yang.
A reader called the office and said, "You must be careful, these people are outrageous, they have brought the Chinese Cultural Revolution stuff to the States. I saw how they insulted The Epoch Times people and asked them to stop—little did I know that they would turn around and insult me."
Ms. Xu, who distributes The Epoch Times in Flushing everyday, said that when she contacted shops that help in the distribution, some indicated that they were afraid and did not want to help.
"I told them that the cause of their fear is the communist regime's terrorism," said Xu. "You are now in a free society. The Epoch Times is the only paper that dares to speak the truth and represents the power of justice. As these shop owners understand the truth, they agreed to continue help us."
The Epoch Times office in New York has been hearing from concerned readers in recent weeks. Some of them are from mainland China, some from Hong Kong. They expressed concern for the safety of the staff and praised the paper's content. Some suggested The Epoch Times publish more reports to expose the unsavory deeds of the Chinese regime.
Xu added that although the volunteers distributing the papers were insulted and threatened, there were usually readers on the scene who defended them. Some would shout to shut up the abusers and chase them away while others took those who did not understand the truth aside and attempted to reason with them.
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