Sabotage of Chinese Epoch Times Intensifies in UK

Undated file photo showing Chinese language newspaper stands including The Epoch Times (L) in England. (The Epoch Times)

The sabotaging of The Epoch Times, one of the few Chinese language newspapers not controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has intensified again in the past year, according to staff in the UK.

It comes after Amnesty International published a report saying Chinese and Hong Kong students in eight countries, including Britain, have been compelled to self-censor out of fear of repercussions from the Chinese regime.

Over the past two decades, The Epoch Times Chinese edition has been subject to constant sabotage including newspaper theft, arson, and vandalisations of paper dispensers. Some suspects have been arrested, and at least one woman in Canada has been ordered by a court to pay compensation over paper theft.

In Hong Kong and the United States, there have also been violent attacks on employees and the smashing of printing presses.

Ms. Guihua Li, director of Epoch Media UK, said the “serious” problem of paper theft has become worse over the past year, and that a number of her counterparts in other countries had raised the same issue, pointing to a pattern that suggests coordination by the CCP.

Theft, Arson, and Vandals

In the UK, newspapers would often disappear at an unusual pace, according to staff in London, Cambridge, Liverpool, and Glasgow.

Emily Li, an office manager at The Epoch Times in London, said she believes the newspapers have been stolen by both CCP agents and shop owners who may have been influenced by the party’s smear campaign against the publication.

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“I want to read The Epoch Times, but couldn’t get any from your stands,” said one reader in the UK, who warned in an email in 2023 about supermarkets using the newspapers as free wrappers and tissue.

According to Ms. Emily Li, earlier this month, 700 copies of The Epoch Times disappeared in just one day from Chinatown in London, while the amount should have lasted four to six days.

In Liverpool, other newspapers have also been stolen, while in Glasgow, readers reported that The Epoch Times is the target, staff said.

In Cambridge, mobile paper holders near the University of Cambridge have been repeatedly smashed, vandalised, or set on fire.

Chen Ping, who distributed newspapers in Cambridge, said there had been three arson incidents and many others in which the boxes were damaged.

Apart from newspapers being torn or set on fire, “Now they would spray paint the boxes to cover the signs or tear the signs down ... or paint words over them,” including expletives in English and Chinese slogans such as “Long live China,” Mr. Chen said.

Caught Red-handed

Elsewhere in the world, newspapers in two supermarkets near Seattle, the United States, were stolen a total of four times over one weekend in February 2023. According to staff who witnessed and filmed the incidents, in three of the instances, the copies were taken in piles by a group of black people, a caucasian woman, and a man who appeared to be Hispanic, respectively, who didn’t appear to speak Chinese.

In Australia, a reader reported witnessing a man throwing away newspapers in 2022.

In Toronto, Canada, a man was reported to the police in August 2023 after repeatedly taking copies of The Epoch Times and the Vision Times, another publication critical of the CCP.

According to the Vision Times, one local reader said the man had for a number of years been taking all of the Epoch Times and Vision Times newspapers, keeping the front pages, and throwing the rest in the bin. Another local reader claimed the man could get one Canadian dollar from the Chinese consulate for each copy he had taken, according to the report.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Chinese embassy in Canada for comment.

Besides newspaper theft and vandalism, there has also been violence against The Epoch Times employees by unidentified mobs, including one incident in 2006 when then-chief technical officer Peter Yuan Li, was attacked in his Atlanta home, and another in 2021, when reporter Sarah Liang was attacked in Hong Kong.

Also in Hong Kong, The Epoch Times printing presses were set on fire in 2019 and damaged by hammer-wielding intruders in 2021.

The recent intensification of newspaper theft came after Western governments and universities were warned about the CCP’s activities, including the monitoring and forced repatriation of Chinese expats and dissidents.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International published a report describing how within hours after a student attended a protest overseas, she received a call from her father in China who had been told by security officials to “educate his daughter … not to attend any events that may harm China’s reputation.”

Meanwhile, the UK government has been urged this week to consider closing a Hong Kong trade office in London over suspected “transnational repression” after one of its employees was charged with spying offences.