Rachel Wong, an Epoch Times host in Hong Kong, was recently threatened by mainland China police to quit broadcasting future programs, or she could be arrested under the new national security law.
The host has stressed that any future threats she receives from the Chinese regime will be disclosed.
Wong, host of the Hong Kong bureau of the Chinese-language Epoch Times’ Cantonese-language talk shows “Shi Shan’s Outlook” and “What’s Wrong,” reported on forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China through Youtube on March 12.
Four days later, a friend of her family was contacted by Chinese authorities.
In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times’ sister station NTDTV, Wong exposed a message she received from a family member on March 16, saying a friend of her relative was called in for questioning by public security officers in her hometown in mainland China.
The police tried to find Wong’s parents and threatened the friend to tell Wong “not to do [Epoch Times] programs anymore” under the current political climate.
They also said, “if the National Security Law is used against them [media staff] and targets them in the future, if her parents don’t have a daughter, it would be very sad, right?”
Last year, after being pushed through by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the new national security law went into effect in Hong Kong on the eve of July 1. Offenses such as secession, subversion, and “collusion with foreign forces” can inflict a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The Epoch Times has been one of the few local media outlets independent of Beijing’s manipulation in Hong Kong, which stood out during the anti-extradition movement in 2019.
On the Frontline
Wong was a frontline reporter and livestreaming host at the time.
On Aug. 31, 2019, she sobbed uncontrollably before the camera after witnessing a protester being shot by police in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. “He fell down in front of me, and I asked him what he was doing, ‘I’ll help you up.’ … He said he had been shot,” Wong recalled.
Epoch Times reporter Rachel Wong sobs before the camera after witnessing a protester shot by police in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, on Aug. 31, 2019. (Screenshot from YouTube)
On Sept. 15, 2019, a pro-Beijing supporter in a white T-shirt attacked Wong and knocked her camera to the ground during a livestream in the North Point neighborhood in Hong Knong. Several police officers witnessed the event but did not detain the attacker.
Wong captured the scene on Oct. 1, 2019, when the first police officer opened fire at a protester. An 18-year-old student, Tsang Chi-kin, was shot in the lung.
Wong was among the demonstrators and was sprayed with blue-dyed liquid from a water cannon.
This is the third time Wong has received a threatening message from Chinese public security officials. The last time was in 2017, after she was seen attending a Falun Gong parade by the police.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice with meditation exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. According to official estimates in 1999, it had attracted 70-100 million adherents in China.
However, millions have been detained or tortured since the CCP launched a systematic elimination campaign over Falun Gong in July 1999, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.
A Special Program
Wong suspects the recent harassment is the result of a program she hosted two weeks ago, disclosing the CCP’s crime of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners.
“It is the most in-depth episode exposing the CCP[’s crimes] since I have begun working in the media.”
During the program, Wong played two audio recordings, including a recording of testimony from a police officer who was on duty at the scene of an organ harvesting operation in Liaoning Province.
The other is of former Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai, admitting that former CCP leader Jiang Zemin had issued commands to kill Falun Gong adherents and sell their organs for profit.
The latter oral evidence was recorded from a phone call to Hotel Atlantic Kempinski Hamburg, where Bo stayed during a visit to Hamburg, Germany, accompanying then-Premier Wen Jiabao in September 2006.
Transcripts were published online by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in 2016.
“[The CCP] fears the most when it comes to its scandals, such as genocide, mass extermination, and live organ harvesting,” Wong said. “If you hide it away, or if you shut the voice down or take a step back, it’s actually more dangerous. ”
Considering being silenced unacceptable, Wong stressed that she will not back down.
“I’m telling the CCP that, for any threat or any action they make to me in the future, I will make it public. I do live shows every day, and I can say it every day.”
From The Epoch Times