A young woman was collecting data at a local Chinese-language Epoch Times newspaper vending box in Los Angeles, California, on April 12, claiming that it was being done at the direction of the “Chinese consulate,” a witness reported. The report was made on the same date as intruders attacked an Epoch Times printing plant in Hong Kong. The witness, surnamed Xue, immigrated to the United States over 30 years ago and lives in Arcadia, a Los Angeles city with a large Chinese immigrant population. She has been reading the paper for 10 years. The Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times was founded in 2000. It is known for being free of Beijing’s censorship and infiltration and offering copies at no cost on major thoroughfares overseas in the past decades. However, due to paper theft and abuse, vending boxes were introduced in recent years, charging 50 cents per copy. Xue went …