Commentary on the Chinese Communist Regime's Interference with the NTDTV Global Chinese New Year Spectacular

[Editors note: NTDTV and The Epoch Times are two separate companies. NTDTV stands for New Tang Dynasty TV and The Epoch Times is a media group who publish both in print and online. Both companies are truthful and supportive towards Falun Gong and so Falun Gong practitioners in turn are very appreciative for their righteous support

New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) held its first touring Global Chinese New Year Spectacular in Vancouver, Canada, on January 3rd, 2007. The next three shows at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco between January 5th and January 7th were sold out. Close to 10,000 people witnessed a live performance based on songs and elaborate group dances. Each program reveals traditional Chinese culture's sanctity and inner meaning. The Chinese Communist regime, however, pressured the Korea National Theater in Seoul through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Culture to cancel NTDTV's performance on January 6th, 2007, by threatening to cancel a National Theater performance slated for China this coming June.

Falun Gong practitioners around the world held press conferences when they discovered this disconcerting information and called on foreign governments, the media, and other people to expose the Chinese Communist regime's villainous tactics in suppressing free media. Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside China resorted to radio broadcasts, television, newspapers, magazines, the telephone, faxes, letters, emails, Internet forums, banners, flyers, advertisements, and other channels to help people recognise the truth of the persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) issued a public announcement on January 11th, 2007, to investigate Zeng Qinghong, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, and other officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding their role in interfering with the NTDTV Global Chinese New Year Spectacular.

The truth prevails nonetheless. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent a letter, conveying best wishes for a Happy Year of the Boar and praised NTDTV's contribution to cultural diversity before the show on January 12th at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. Other government officials and Chinese community leaders attended the performance. Environment Minister and MP John Baird attended the performance and sent a letter on behalf of the Canadian government in which he described the NTDTV Spectacular as a "unique, world-renowned celebration...a brilliant example of the beauty and elegance of Chinese culture."

Background Information
Exposing the Communist regime's interference with NTDTV

New Tang Dynasty Television, founded five years ago, has the mission of providing viewers with accurate information and fostering understanding between Chinese and Western societies. The NTDTV staff does not fear any totalitarian regime when they speak the truth. NTDTV reports in detail sensitive topics of great interest to the Chinese communities that are blocked by the Communist regime. These topics have included the SARS epidemic, Article 23 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, and civil right protests in China. NTDTV has also devoted their efforts to reporting on the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, particularly the Communist regime's harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, without interruption.

NTDTV's fourth annual Chinese New Year's performance received wide praise for re-enacting marvellous stories of magical lands, enchanted dreams, and the classic battle between good and evil, as well as for high-level artistic skills. Some people in Mainland China also watched the performance via satellite TV. Billboard Magazine, an entertainment industry trendsetter, named last year's show in New York City one of the top ten shows.

The Communist regime sees NTDTV--an outspoken media that does not cave in to financial incentives or political pressure--as a massive threat. The Communist Party's interference in South Korea did not begin with NTDTV's operation of the show. It began much earlier! On December 16th, 2003, China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued an urgent, top-secret, encrypted telegraph to provincial, district, municipal, and autonomous regions' radio and TV bureaus. In this message "officials at the central government" gave instructions for suppressing NTDTV's Chinese New Year show. During Christmas 2003, Australian singer Christian Bischoff had flown to New York at the invitation of NTDTV to perform in the New Year's show, but three hours before his flight from Australia to New York he received a phone call from the Chinese consulate trying to dissuade him from giving the performance.

Then, in January of 2004, Zhou Xiaomei, Consul for Political & Press Affairs of the Chinese Consulate General of Los Angeles, wrote letters to some prominent US figures, asking them not to accept interviews from NTDTV regarding its global Chinese New Year performance.

On February 9th, 2004, Wang Lili, head of the Discipline Inspection Group, part of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Discipline Inspection Committee stationed at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, spoke at a Task Force Meeting reviewing the Bureau's 2003 performance. She specifically mentioned the "Inaugural Global Chinese New Year Gala" held by NTDTV in New York City, as well as in other cities around the world. She called the NTDTV Gala a "direct rival to the CCTV's own Chinese Spring Festival Gala."

In June of 2005, the Communist regime coerced Eutelsat, the European telecommunications satellite company, into reneging on its contract with NTDTV by threatening to refuse the company rights to Olympic

Two Australian ballet dancers, Lucinda Dunn and Robert Curran, pulled out of the 2006 NTDTV gala after the Chinese Communist regime threatened to cancel their show that was touring in China.

The Epoch Times' "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" makes the CCP uneasy

NTDTV is not the only courageous media the Communist regime suppresses. The Epoch Times published the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, which exposed the evil nature of the Communist Party. The series triggered a wave of withdrawals from the Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. Up until now, more than 17 million people have publicly renounced their membership in the Party and its affiliated organisations. The Communist regime anxiously tries to stop the transmission of the Nine Commentaries in foreign countries and has extended its claws of persecution abroad.

Four hammer-wielding men broke into The Epoch Times Hong Kong office in May 2005. They destroyed some printing facilities in an attempt to paralyse the office and prevent it from producing copies of the Nine Commentaries. The Epoch Times marketing company, DZY Marketing, received correspondence from the Malaysia Internal Security Ministry on July 7th, 2005, stating that the tone of The Epoch Times reports did not fit their criteria and policies to maintain "friendly Malaysia-China relations," and that The Epoch Times was not "neutral." The decision was therefore made to suppress the 147th and 148th editions of The Epoch Times . Worse yet, several men violently attacked Epoch Times' chief technical officer Peter Li in his home. They bound him, covered him with a blanket. and beat him. They also took his computers and some documents. After his neighbour called the police, Peter Li was taken to a hospital where his facial injuries required 15 stitches.

The Chinese Communist regime employs violence and creates terror
All of the Communist regime's violations of freedom of the press and human rights in the past few years are closely linked to its persecution of Falun Gong. The regime has spared no effort in slandering and harassing Falun Gong practitioners abroad. Chinese consulates violated international pacts and sent slanderous propaganda to foreign government officials, the media, and NGOs, libelling Falun Gong. The Chinese consulates have also prevented local governments from voicing their support and issuing proclamations for Falun Gong by using trade or diplomatic relations as political chips. The regime has disseminated lies through public libraries, the media, the Internet, and schools. It has used blacklists and incited hatred against Falun Gong within Chinese communities abroad and prevented overseas Falun Gong practitioners' participation in legitimate protest activities.

After decades of rule by terror, the CCP is an extreme example of a regime that does not shy away from utilising every possible means, legal or criminal, to maintain power. It not only persecutes Chinese people inside China without restraint but also exports the persecution abroad, to Western countries that respect human rights and freedoms. National security agents and spies have repeatedly threatened overseas Falun Gong practitioners, harassed them, burned their cars, beaten and robbed them, broken into their homes, and injured them. The attack on Peter Li in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US is just another example of incidents that have occurred after Zeng Qinghong hired an assassin to open fire on Falun Gong practitioner David Liang during his visit to South Africa on June 28th, 2004. In December 2005 Chinese consulates also incited Thai police and pro-Communist thugs in Argentina to violently assault Falun Gong practitioners.

Falun Gong practitioners' efforts have helped people to learn the truth
Falun Gong has been embraced in more than 80 countries during the Communist regime's seven-year-plus persecution and received more than 1,400 proclamations. Falun Gong practitioners all over the world have used banners and participated in parades, gatherings, candlelight vigils, torture exhibitions, press conferences, and art performances to clarify the truth again and again about the brutal nature of the persecution and to inspire people's kindness and sense of conscience. Righteous support and feedback from the international community is heard on a regular basis. Many federal and local government officials in foreign countries have asked the CCP to stop persecuting Falun Gong.

The incidents above reveal that the Chinese Communist regime not only persecutes Falun Gong on Chinese soil. It also severely violates the laws of other countries by exporting the persecution. The CCP has become the largest terrorist group in the world. Today, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of belief are universally recognised, unalienable rights.

Nevertheless, the Communist regime again prevented NTDTV's Chinese New Year's performance in Seoul, South Korea. By threatening South Korea, the CCP again proves itself to be a most flagrant villain, creating evil and sowing terror. Anyone who is indifferent or clings to illusions regarding the Communist Party is indulging and appeasing its evilness.

Foreign governments support NTDTV and are against the persecution
The Eutelsat incident two years ago enabled NTDTV to become more widely known. Through truth clarification efforts by Falun Gong practitioners all over the world, NTDTV received wide support and tremendous help from members of the European Parliament, US government officials, senators, the media, human rights organisations, and many other people. In the end, NTDTV signed a six-year contract with Eutelsat. Six days after the Seoul incident this year, the Canadian prime minister wrote a letter to celebrate the Chinese New Year and acknowledge NTDTV's contribution to cultural diversity. The prime minister's letter was a sound answer to the Chinese regime's conspiracy and its attempt to block free speech.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton coined the phrase, "The pen is mightier than the sword." The CCP's rogue nature and hypocrisy is clearly exposed through the courageous outspokenness of NTDTV and The Epoch Times. The NTDTV global Chinese New Year Spectacular makes the CCP tremble with fear, and the wave of withdrawals from the CCP is nerve-racking for the CCP. The purpose of exposing the CCP's nature and the truth about the persecution is to awaken people's conscience and sense of justice so that the whole world will condemn the Communist regime for its crimes. Evil can never win. The day when everyone refuses to go along with this persecution is the day when the CCP takes its last breath.