The Epoch Times

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The Epoch Times
Type	International newspaper
Format	Broadsheet

Owner	Privately owned
Founded	2000
Price	Free
Headquarters	New York, United States
Circulation	1.4 million

Website: The Epoch Times

The Epoch Times (Simplified Chinese: 大纪元; Traditional Chinese: 大紀元; Pinyin: Dàjìyuán) is a privately owned, general-interest newspaper, originally published in Chinese.^[1] According to their own statement the founding Epoch Times started publishing to provide what they see as uncensored coverage of events in China^[1] and has been in continuous publication since May 2000. Headquartered in New York, the newspaper has local bureaux and a wide network of local reporters throughout the world. Currently distributed free-of-charge in roughly 30 countries worldwide, The Epoch Times maintains editions in English and Chinese as well as nine other languages in print, and 17 languages on the web. It is often associated with the Falun Gong spiritual discipline. The newspaper's editorial stance has been described as critical of the People's Republic of China and Chinese Communist Party, (CCP) and favorable of Falun Gong.^[2]^[3] The newspaper claims to have a special strength in its coverage of China and human rights issues.

1 History
- 1.1 Awards and Recognition
- 1.2 Controversy
2 Focus
3 The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party
- 3.1 CPC Renunciations and Controversy
4 References
5 External links

History

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Please see the discussion on the .
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Protest against the Communist Party of China and its purported control over Chinese society, organized by various associations including Falun Gong. Paris, Place d'Italie, February 26, 2006, near noon. The Epoch Times is cited by the protesters.

According to the newspaper itself, The Epoch Times was founded in New York in May 2000, following the arrest of a small circle of journalists in China in 2000.^[1] As stated by Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), The Epoch Times "was established by Dafa disciples for validating the Fa."^[4] The term Dafa disciple refers to practitioners of Falun Dafa. "Validating the Fa" refers to resisting and exposing the persecution of Falun Gong in mainland China, at the same time clarifying the truth. According to Li, The Epoch Times is one of “three major media groups”— Sound of Hope and New Tang Dynasty TV are the other two—which most concern the Chinese Communist Party, because The Epoch Times has become “the platform and facilitator for the Nine Commentaries.” In 2005 a practitioner asked Li how it should be run. Li responded:

Just as I said earlier, if you want to do better, you need to cooperate and coordinate well, carry out each task responsibly and attentively, and through your collective effort make that media outlet stand out. If all of you do well, the media outlet is bound to do well, and it will have a greater effect...^[4]

As reported by the paper itself, Chinese journalists relayed stories overseas of alleged human rights abuses, infringements on civil liberties and corruption in the Communist Party of China (CPC), among others.^[1] Blocked from being accessed electronically or distributed in China, the Chinese version of The Epoch Times is mainly being distributed in overseas Chinese communities for free. It claims to have a weekly distribution of over one million copies in 30 countries worldwide. The paper has associated media services, including the television station New Tang Dynasty TV, the radio station Sound of Hope, which together with The Epoch Times form the Epoch media group. Minghui (Clear Wisdom) and Reminbao (People's Paper) are two other news sources used by few if any other media, and that help contribute stories from a Falun Gong perspective.^[5] In August 2004, an English language edition of The Epoch Times was launched in Manhattan. English editions are distributed in Australia, Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Ottawa), Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Houston and Atlanta). German and French editions were launched in late 2004 and more recently Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian, Dutch and Hebrew editions have started up in print. As of April 2006, The Epoch Times was available in ten languages for its print editions and in 17 languages on the Internet.^[6]

Awards and Recognition

In May 2005, Die Neue Epoche (German edition of The Epoch Times) received a special media prize from the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) for "extensive and regular reporting about violations of human rights in China."^[7] In August 2005, the English version of the paper was awarded the top award by the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) for the category "Asian American Issues - Online."^[8] In September 2005, the Chinese version of the paper was recognized during the National Ethnomedia Week 2005 in Canada as a "strong defender of human rights and free democratic values."^[9]

Controversy

In 2006, Epoch Times reporter Wang Wenyi made international headlines by yelling insults to Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Bush during a White House lawn press briefing. The Epoch Times later apologized, and Wang Wenyi asserted that she undertook the action on her own. Wang Wenyi no longer reports for the Epoch Times.^[10]

Focus

The Epoch Times originally targeted Chinese readers living abroad and reported on various alleged persecutions and abuses by, as well as the inner workings of, the CPC. The paper's reports on China are highly critical of the government, and its tone and commentaries towards the Chinese government are largely negative, and contain an anti-Communist view. It often refers to China and its government as "Communist China" in its reports, including non-political articles, as it does not recognise the CPC as the legitimate government of China. It has since grown to report on civil rights issues worldwide, and now appeals to a somewhat wider audience. It sometimes also publishes articles accusing overseas Chinese personalities and media of alleged pro-CPC or anti-Falun Gong bias. The English edition represents itself as a general-interest newspaper that, although it maintains a large amount of China-related content, offers twelve other sections, including travel, science, sports, and regional and international news. The paper is unique in giving a large amount of attention to Falun Gong's campaigns, particularly their attempt to sue former Chinese President Jiang Zemin under civil legislation for genocide.^[11] However the case failed to attract major media attention outside of the newspaper, and later the paper's stance shifted from being anti-Jiang Zemin to anti-CPC. According to tax records, the chairman of the paper's board, Kangang Xu, is a top Falun Gong spokesperson.^[12] The paper's Chinese editions tend to carry a large number of articles promoting heavily edited traditional Chinese mythology and Biblical stories, not just Falun Gong doctrines, in a way that reinforces the paper's stance against the CPC. According to the paper, its goal in reporting is to accurately inform its readers about events in China, particularly those stories that remain censored. For example, it was one of the first newspapers to carry in-depth coverage of SARS, well before the Chinese government publicly admitted that there was an epidemic that went on to cause some 350 deaths. The paper also counters what it considers to be CPC propaganda through its own opinion pieces. The paper is very vocal in supporting dissidents, Falun Gong practitioners, pro-independence Taiwanese, American conservatives and all other traditional opponents of the CPC; their views are often expressed in the opinion page. The paper does not publish letters and opinions that would be considered pro-Communist or anti-Falun Gong.

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party

In November 2004, the Chinese version of The Epoch Times published and heavily promoted a series of editorials and a booklet entitled "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" (simplified Chinese: 九评共产党; traditional Chinese: 九評共產黨; pinyin: Jǐupíng Gòngchǎn dǎng). The editorials purport to give an alternate exposé of the CPC through its history, from its ascent to power under Mao Zedong to its present-day form, as well as a condemnation of communism in all of its forms. In it the CPC was criticized as an illegitimate institution who employed underhanded tactics to gain power. Later in the series, however, the direction seems to shift between the CPC itself, its leaders, and allots an entire chapter on the "personal jealousy of Jiang Zemin" and his attacks on Falun Gong. The Nine Commentaries won the “Asian American Issues - Online” category at the 2005 Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) convention held in August 2005.^[13]^[14] The "Commentaries" were subsequently rendered into other languages. According to China's Sina News, while praised by some Chinese dissidents as having an adverse effect on the political control of the CPC, the contents of the commentaries are disputed by some critics who call it historical revisionism and Falun Gong propaganda. Because such text is banned in China, the paper has been reported to often send unsolicited copies, disguised as lottery winnings, sexually explicit material, and free game or music downloads via email or Internet pop-ups to spread their message inside mainland China.^{Inaccurate reference: the Sina News didn't mention the Epoch Times or the commentaries at all}^[15] In December 2005, the author of the "Nine Commentaries" was identified as Zheng Peichun, a Chinese dissident, who was arrested on the charge of crimes against the state and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.^[16] The paper has published a follow-up to the Nine Commentaries, entitled the The Real Story of Jiang Zemin,^[17] which portrays former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who Falun Gong believes is responsible for the persecution, in a completely negative lights, calling him a "lowlife who betrayed his own nation", depicting Jiang as a power-hungry political opportunist who sold China to foreign powers and created domestic chaos.

CPC Renunciations and Controversy

"Support 8.0 Million Chinese Quit Chinese Communist Party"; Paris, Place d'Italie, February 26, 2006.

The Epoch Times claims that the publication of the "Commentaries" and its subsequent call to CPC members to "erase the beastly brand" has caused more than 28 million CPC members to resign as of November 2007.^[18] The Epoch Times obtains this number by tallying renunciation statements submitted to them via Internet, fax, email, or telephone. This methodology is not scientific and widely disputed, and may not reflect the actual number of CPC resignations within China since anyone regardless of Chinese citizenship or CPC membership could submit their name and be counted as a person who has claimed to have renounced their CPC membership. Submissions include anonymous and unverifiable online signatures, duplicate signatures, and public declarations for people inside mainland China unable to access the website due to censorship. The count also includes any renunciations of past or current association with any CPC-affiliated organization. At their Chinese language renunciation website,^[19] it was stated that "the evils of the Communist Cult will be punished by God at Judgment Day", and called on members of the CPC to burn Communist memorabilia. These renunciations are not recognized as valid and official by the CPC, as they are not conducted through the proper channels via the party.^[20] This campaign calling for the renouncements of CCP members is also called the three Renouncements (三退) since it also encourages members of the two major subordinating organizations of the CCP, the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers of China, to renounce their memberships. Worth noticing that according to the Constitution of the Young Pioneers of China (YP), only children between the age of 6 and 14 are eligible to be a member of the YP.^[21] Those who exceeds this age limit exits the YP automatically. Similar age restrictions applies to the Communist Youth League (CYL) as well (14-28).^[22] However, many participants renounces their membership of the YP and CYL even though they exceeds the age limits of these organizations and are no longer members. For example, the founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi renounced his membership of CYL in 2005 at the age of 54 and was included in the tally. ^[23] Some says that the three renouncements has nothing to do with Falun Gong, it is just an independent campaign launched by Epoch Times. However, Fei Liangyong, Chairman of the Democratic China Front and senior member of Chinese Free Culture Movement, explicitly mentioned that the three renouncements campaign was indeed initiated by Falun Gong in his speeches and his various interviews with Falun Gong related media such as Mingjian (明见网,"Clear View Network") and Huiyuan (慧园, "Wisdom Garden").^[24] At their English language version of the renunciation website, the cumulative count of people who have allegedly quit the CCP appears as a sidebar to the Internet form which captures English language denunciations of the CCP.^[25] An official Epoch Times statement appearing at the bottom of the page appears to conflate denunciations done by non CCP members on this page with the renunciations done by CCP members on the Chinese language page: "All The Epoch Times Offices worldwide will provide assistance to anybody who wants to denounce/renounce the Communist Party (or League). Chinese Version of this Page: [1]. During the summer of 2005, two diplomats, Chen Yonglin and Hao Fengjun, defected from the Chinese embassy in Canberra, Australia. The cases received international attention, and Chen Yonglin received some attention from The New York Times. According to The Epoch Times, their actions had been influenced by the Nine Commentaries. More recently, in a story beginning October 26th, 2006, Jia Jia, Secretary General of the Shanxi Provincial Expert Association of Science and Technology, has made Epoch Times headlines due to his supposed renunciation of the Communist Party of China.^[26]^[27]^[28] According to Epoch Times interviews, his actions were directly influenced by the Nine Commentaries, and Jia asserts considerable discussion of the Commentaries and government dissatisfaction within China. Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Voice of America are among other media that picked up the story, interviewing Mr. Jia themselves.^[29]