The Epoch Times

Mar 09, 2005

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Los Angeles police apprehended a man who has been observed systematically stealing Chinese-language Epoch Times newspapers in what some believe is an attempt to silence the paper. The newspaper, known as "Da Ji Yuan" in Chinese, frequently reports on sensitive China-related issues that other papers refrain from covering.

"This is only one case, but we believe that it is part of an organized effort to damage our newspaper," said Daniel Wang with the Los Angeles Da Ji Yuan office. "Our newspapers are disappearing unreasonably fast from locations throughout the greater Los Angeles area, as well as in New York and San Francisco."

In late February, newspaper staff caught a Chinese man, reportedly named Mr. Lum, removing hundreds of papers at a time. They followed him for 11 days and photographed him stealing thousands of Da Ji Yuan papers from multiple distribution sites. On March 6, as a newspaper employee was videotaping Lum in action, Lum hit him with his pick-up truck and drove off. When police arrived at Lum's house to arrest him for assault, he pulled out a gun.

Da Ji Yuan is a free Chinese-language paper that has been published in Los Angeles and cities across the United States for five years. Worldwide, it is the largest Chinese paper not sponsored by the Mainland Chinese or Taiwanese government and businesses.

"Our newspaper reports on things like the controversial Article 23 in Hong Kong, the spread of SARS, human rights, and the issue of Falun Gong," says Jordan Liu, a Da Ji Yuan employee. "These are all things that the Chinese Communist Party doesn't want people to know about."

Liu says that the paper, which was launched before The English Epoch Times with funding coming from advertising and individual shareholders, has encountered various forms of interference. A potential customer once told him that although he likes the paper, his son is still in China and he doesn't dare to place an ad with the paper for fear of trouble from the Chinese Consulate.

Two years ago, employees discovered that the newspapers, which are distributed on racks at supermarkets and other locations, were being stolen in large quantities. The distributors noticed that at some locations, shortly after the papers were placed on the racks they were all removed.

They found it suspicious and began watching what happened to the papers at the distribution sites. At multiple locations they saw people removing dozens of papers at a time.

The problem became especially prominent after the paper published an influential series of commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in November 2004.

"The nine commentaries caused shockwaves through the Chinese community," says Michael Ye, a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning, and Development.

"The CCP controls Chinese people through deceit and fear and the commentaries unveiled the Party's real nature, showing people the truth of its history," he says.

Ye said that the commentaries gave the Chinese people the courage to stand up, leading to a mass withdrawal from the CCP. As of March 8, over 183,000 Chinese people have renounced their connection with the CCP, according to www.9ping.com, and the number continues to grow at a pace of over 10,000 per day.

The Chinese government couldn't stand this, Ye says. "Many people suspect that there is a connection between the [Chinese] Consulate and the stealing of the papers."

Full-Time Job

On February 22, 2005 Da Ji Yuan employees spotted Mr. Lum removing hundreds of newspapers from their racks outside the 99 Ranch Supermarket in San Gabriel.

Lum had a regular routine: he parked his white pick-up in front of the rack. He looked around and then quickly grabbed a handful of papers and put them in the back of his truck. After loitering for a little while, he swiftly snatched another bunch. He repeated this until all or almost all of the papers were gone. Then he zoomed off to the next distribution site.

He drove very fast and was hard to follow, says Daniel Wang, a Da Ji Yuan employee who has been involved in the investigation. For 11 days a team followed him, eventually discovering his complete route and home address.

"He did this every day, even on Saturday and Sunday and in heavy rain, showing a strong commitment to the job," Wang says.

With the back of his truck full of newspapers, perhaps thousands, Lum pulled into a Los Angeles recycling center bordering the City of Alhambra. According to one of the recycling center's employees, Lum had been coming by very frequently, even daily.

Wang doesn't believe Lum could have made much money off of the recycling, however. "I followed him around for a whole day and used up a lot of gas even driving a Toyota Corolla," he says. "With his pick-up, I don't think the money he made from recycling could have been more than what he spent on the gas."

Moreover, Wang says, there are many other free Chinese newspapers that Lum could have removed and recycled just the same for an even greater profit. But he never did. He only stole the Da Ji Yuan.

He suspects that Lum, for whom stealing newspapers occupied the full daytime schedule, must have been receiving income for this work from another source.

On his route, Lum was spotted entering three different banks.

Fearless

On Sunday, Da Ji Yuan employees pulled up into the recycling center behind Lum's truck. Tony Hong stepped out of the van and began videotaping Lum and his truck, which was full of stolen Da Ji Yuan papers.

Lum pulled a quick U-turn and drove right into Hong's leg. In the video footage that was turned into the police, two startled screams can be heard. Hong was not seriously hurt.

Two hours later, LAPD officers arrived and filed a report for Assault with a Deadly Weapon - a vehicle. They then went with the newspaper staff to Lum's house and knocked on his door, but he wasn't there.

Da Ji Yuan employees remained outside Lum's house and alerted the police as soon as he returned. At approximately 6:30 pm, three LAPD officers arrived and again knocked on Lum's door. Through the window, they spotted him carrying a gun.

"Lum most likely didn't realize that the police were there with us," Wang says. "But he knew we were outside his house. The gun was probably for us."

Seeing the gun, the police officers called for backup. After a 10-minute standoff, Lum surrendered and was soon lying on the front lawn, being handcuffed and taken away.

Wang and other Da Ji Yuan employees, however, consider this issue far from over. They plan to continue to investigate in order to discover those behind the stealing of the papers.

"There is no freedom of the press in China, but we cherish our freedom to publish accurate and responsible news in the United States," Wang writes in a March 8 letter calling for help in the investigation.

"Who has the motive to make our newspaper, and our newspaper alone, unavailable to the Chinese community?"

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-3-9/26909.html