Early on Monday morning, four masked men entered the print shop of the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times.
The men threatened the factory staff before using a flammable liquid and some paper to set fire to a printing press and rolls of paper.
Fortunately, none of the staff were injured, and the fire was quickly put out—but not before causing significant damage.
The entire incident was caught on surveillance camera footage and can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The incident is the latest in a series of escalating attacks by the Chinese regime on freedom of the press in Hong Kong.
Read the full story here.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/masked-intruders-set-fire-to-hong-kong-epoch-times-printing-press_3150829.html
Masked Attackers Burn Printing Warehouse of Pro-Democracy Newspaper Epoch Times
5:04
Four unidentified arsonists targeted the printing warehouse of the Epoch Times, a global newspaper that has consistently challenged the Chinese Communist Party, on Tuesday morning, setting fire to the warehouse just as staffers prepared to distribute the Tuesday edition of the newspaper.
According to the Hong Kong edition of the newspaper, the masked men stormed into the warehouse at around 3:40 a.m. local time, brandishing weapons reminiscent of what Hong Kong police officers carry and wearing all black, the color of the Hong Kong protesters. Hong Kong police have admitted to disguising officers as pro-democracy protesters to get close to movement leaders and assault them.
After corralling the warehouse workers, the attackers began dousing the newspapers with an unidentified flammable liquid, set them on fire, and ran away.
The report, citing surveillance footage, indicates the men were standing outside the warehouse waiting for the doors to open when the time came to transport the newspaper to newsstands around the city. Staffers ultimately extinguished the flames, though they appear to have caused significant property damage. No one was hurt in the incident.
The Epoch Times made its surveillance footage of the attack public.
The incident took place around 3:40AM, as the staff there were about to send off newly printed newspapers to the stands.
Moments after staff opened the factory door, 4 masked men walked into the facility and pointed batons towards the workers, shouting: “all of you don’t move!”
Surveillance footage shows 2 of the men dressed in all black carrying batons, while one of them holds newspapers, and another carries two containers containing a flammable liquid, which he poured onto the factory machines and newspapers.
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The newspaper staff reported this was the fourth such attack on its printing facility and explicitly described the attack as “an effort by the Communist Party of China” to silence them.
In an email statement to Breitbart News, Cheryl Ng, the Epoch Times Hong Kong edition spokesperson, said the newspaper believes the attack occurred because it has consistently exposed the reality of the Communist Party.
“The Chinese Communist Party is hostile to a free press. In Hong Kong, we have provided timely, honest reports on the protests, and the Hong Kong people have come to rely on us for news about the actual situation,” Ng wrote. “We also provide uncensored news on events in mainland China, giving those inside China who can access our website, and people around the world, uniquely insightful reports. And in 2004 we published ‘Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,’ which provides an honest and uncensored account of history, violence, and lies of the CCP.”
“For all of these reasons, the CCP has targeted our paper in Hong Kong and around the world,” she said.
Ng added that, in light of months of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, the newspaper has experienced growing popularity there for publishing the reality of police abuses against protesters and attempts at repressing the populace orchestrated by China.
“In Hong Kong, The Epoch Times has become very popular lately especially after the more than 5 months during which the Hong Kong people have suffered ill treatment from the regime. This has been a painful experience for the Hong Kong people to come to understand first hand about CCP tactics that they had not experienced before,” Ng wrote. “Recently, a Hong Kong reader in tears shared her experience about how she became a loyal reader of The Epoch Times. She said she only reads The Epoch Times these days for she feels that our paper is going through the hard times with Hong Kongers while letting the world know that Hong Kongers are really suppressed by the CCP.”
The Epoch Times was founded in the United States in 2000, initially as a Chinese-language newspaper to give voice to those oppressed by the communist regime. It has since developed into an international outlet that regularly challenges dictatorships, particularly communist and socialist ones, around the world. For this, it has faced censorship from pro-China social media outlets like Facebook and Wikipedia, in addition to physical attacks from suspected Chinese agents.
The Epoch Times joins the anti-communist Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily in suffering attacks by supporters of the communist regime. In September, masked men tossed Molotov cocktails over the fence protectin the home of Jimmy Lai, the founder of Apple Daily, the second time Lai has suffered such an attack in recent memory.
That same month, men disguised as pro-democracy protesters assaulted a female Apple Daily reporter covering the protests at a restaurant, an attack that required hospitalization.
Both masked assailants and men who did not bother to disguise themselves have taken to violent acts against the pro-democracy movement. Using baseball bats, hammers, knives, and razors, a variety of communist supporters have targeted peaceful protesters, leaving many hospitalized. Pro-communist groups in China have encouraged these attacks by offering financial rewards to some who have engaged in attacks on protesters.
China is also believed to have orchestrated mob attacks on unarmed protesters. The first, in July, featured an estimated 100 thugs carrying metal rods and bamboo sticks, beating unarmed protesters in a metro station. Those most severely injured were cornered on metro trains and beaten by large groups of men. Pro-China lawmaker Junius Ho appeared on the scene to shake the hands of the attackers and chat with them while the attack was underway.
Millions of people in Hong Kong have taken to street protests since June when the government attempted to pass a law that would allow communist China to extradite anyone present in the country. Protesters are demanding an investigation into police brutality, freedom for imprisoned peaceful protesters, an end to referring to the protests as riots, and the direct election of lawmakers to prevent a similar bill from arising again.
Chinese Ramp Up Illegal Money Transfers
November 5, 2015 Updated: December 7, 2015
As more people realize Chinese growth data cannot be trusted, the market is looking at capital outflows to gauge the true state of the Chinese economy.
If people are moving their money out, it’s a red flag. Estimates using official data put total capital outflows at $850 billion up to the end of September, well on track for a $1 trillion total by the end of the year.
In addition to the official data, we have now learned that Chinese people transferred at least $126 billion overseas since last April using underground banks, according to a report by Chinese state media Xinhua.
The emphasis here is on “at least” because it is only the amount gathered by the People’s Bank of China from 92 investigations into underground banks.
Ou Yangxiong, the head of Department of Management and Inspection at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange told Xinhua:
“From the cases resolved, illegal underground banks have been dealing in greater amounts of money and their methods are increasingly more secretive. Slowly, these underground banks have become a ‘laundering tool,’ since some bankers [of regular banks] have become middlemen.”
Given the opacity of Chinese underground banking and the sums of money involved, the total could be double or triple the number of the cases actually investigated.
The Chinese regime has recently started to crack down on underground banks in an effort to reduce capital flight, one reason why the underground banking cases are increasing.
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But underground banks are only one of the few methods used to funnel money out the country.
Digital currency bitcoin’s stellar rise in recent months is one indication the Chinese are using it as a method to transfer their savings overseas as well.
To mask additional official outflows, China has also been hiding direct sales of foreign exchange reserves with derivative contracts.
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