If the harassment efforts are doing anything, it’s not in the way that Beijing might wish, the director said.
Threats of mass shootings. Bomb detonations. Systematic hacking.
At a rate of roughly one every two days over the past two months, threats in Chinese have been directed to the inboxes of journalists, theaters, the police, and local lawmakers, mostly based in the United States and Taiwan. The threats have one goal: to stop the screening of a film called “State Organs.”
The Canadian documentary, now a contender in the 2025 Academy Awards, follows the journeys of two families in search of their missing loved ones against the backdrop of communist China’s grisly state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting.
“State Organs” has screened in 15 Taiwanese cities since October as well as in San Francisco, New York City, and Japan.
“You better think before you act,” one email shared with The Epoch Times read. The sender claimed to have obtained the personal information of staff members at four theaters in Taiwan. The theaters had scheduled viewings of “State Organs” and received threats that their staff’s information would be released if the screenings went ahead.
At least two emails came with images of guns attached, with warnings that shots would be fired at audience members if the theaters didn’t cancel screenings of the film. Yet another email, this time directed at a reporter, claimed to have implanted explosives in her company’s headquarters in Taipei that would be set off unless she deleted a report on the film.
Ahead of a Nov. 30 screening hosted at Taipei’s city council building, another message threatened possible knife attacks.
All of these, it turned out, were empty threats. Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau has opened an investigation and increased security at the events. They’ve found no evidence of explosives or other public safety risks. The pattern, the police said, typifies the cyber-harassment campaigns originating from mainland China.
To director Raymond Zhang, whose name was directly mentioned in one harassment email, it feels like certain elements of the film are playing out in real life.
By Eva Fu
