Authorities Shut Down Film Festival in New York

No they didn't...

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

The FBI and Canada seem to feel differently enough to investigate, and have arrested a few individuals operating these types of "overseas police stations". [1]

"Chen Jinping, 60, of New York, New York, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC),"[2]

The films weren't just pulled - the festival was cancelled.[3]

Sources:

1: https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/trnsprnc/brfng-mtrls/prlm...

2: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/new-york-resident-pl...

3: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/07/indiechina-ind...

How is it different? It's still not US authorities shutting down a US festival as the title would make you believe...

I understand this is pressure from China, that they were threatened and that yes this is a horrible situation. All I'm saying is the actual decision to shut down the festival was not (and cannot) be made by China.

I see what you're saying, I didn't make the assumption it was the US authorities, simply that an authoritative entity was involved. In this case, that entity applied enough pressure to directors to make the organizers feel the need to cancel the event. I consider the headline to be clickbait, but obviously we drew very different conclusions from it.

I hear you though, clickbait gonna clickbait.