Only using the word "Authorities" in the title understates the significance of this.

This is not the US government shutting down a film festival; this is the Chinese government engaging in an illegal overseas harrassment campaign in order to suppress negative depictions of itself.

Fascism is in vogue. The United States isn’t far behind.

tl,dr: It's China policing the Uyghur issue in the context of the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival: https://indiechina.org/about/

No they didn't...

It's third party harassment and they chose to pull out of the festival over it.

Don't suppose there's a torrent of the suppressed film?

Well, this sucks! Whether its the Chinese gov. (like in this piece), or the U.s. gov in other areas (and w/more frequency this year), its an awful state of affairs for everyone. I remember years, maybe a couple of decades ago, there was this rush to "remove the borders" for "better global business"...this helped capitalism spread (for better or worse), and now it feels like more and more the borders that might contain fascism are disappearing...so fascism is spreading more and more. Ugh! :-(

Poorly worded title, something like this would be clearer:

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Chinese Authorities Threaten Mainland Relatives to Shut Down Film Festival in New York

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Even the subheading from the article seemed better: "Chinese Police Harass Filmmakers, Families to Undermine Free Expression Abroad"

Though I would of made it "Filmmaker's Families".

How can you be free if your family is held hostage. As soon as a person from China becomes free or achieves anything, this is what happens.

This is what they do just because of a movie they don't care for. Imagine what they do when they actually want or need something.

The coercion is very strong, and why some end up in jail for spying or other criminal acts in the hosting country, even if they end up citizens, and love the place. Very messed up.

> After the festival was suspended, Zhu issued a statement that the decision was not out of fear, but rather to “stop harassment of … directors, guests, former staff, and volunteers associated with the festival, including my friends and family.”

I don’t quite get the distinction being made here. Surely the Chinese authorities have succeeded in scaring the people involved in the festival into calling it off.