9 Commentaries On The Communist Party

[Geraldine Ferraiz]

OnJuly 1st of this year, the Communist Party of China (CPC) will turn 100 years old. Many living in the United States might scratch their heads and wonder how the CPC managed to not only survive but thrive after the dissolution of the USSR and the fall of the socialist governments of Eastern Europe. Riffing on Karl Marx, commentator Francis Fukuyama infamously dubbed 1989-91 to be the end of history, signaling that liberal capitalism was the final stage in human evolution. So how has China defied Western expectations?

Why has the CPC reached a century, and more than 70 years in power, despite the constant doomsday predictions? To the Chinese people, and to those who can look past the mainstream corporate narratives, the answer is obvious: The party has delivered results.

The CPC made the first call on all of China to join forces to fight the invading enemy. Chiang Kai-shek adopted a policy of non-resistance in the face of Japanese aggression, forcing the Communist Party to form guerrilla forces and create bases to resist the Japanese. When official hostilities broke out, the CPC was on the frontlines, eventually entering into a second United Front with the KMT and fighting as part of the official Chinese military.

Those who seek to slander the CPC ignore the fact that many regiments in the National Revolutionary Army (the name of the Chinese military at the time), such as the 8th Route Army, were communist armies. The 8th Route Army, led by Peng Duhai, fought and won the Hundred Regiments Offensive, defeating a Japanese and collaborator army that outnumbered them 2 to 1.

Despite the heroism of the CPC and the Chinese people, the Japanese carved a path of destruction across China, including the infamous Nanjing Massacre that murdered 300,000 unarmed soldiers and civilians. Japan denies its atrocities to this day.

However, the tide ultimately turned, and as soon as the Soviet Red Army intervened, Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945. Yet the Chinese Civil War was still unsettled. By carrying out land reform during the war, and winning the support of the rural population, the CPC grew immensely.

Chiang Kai-shek, meanwhile, had no intention of accepting peace with the Communists and moved to conscript thousands into his armies. Negotiations broke down, and hostilities resumed in 1946, with the KMT making the first move. The final phase of the Chinese Civil War had begun, the last stage in a war of national liberation.

If we compare where Old China was in 1949 and where New China stands in 2021, we see that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and in the course of building socialism, China made the quality of life in seven decades that took the capitalist world centuries to achieve.

In November 2020, President Xi Jinping announced that China had defeated absolute poverty. The population living in absolute poverty dropped from 99 million at the end of 2012 to 5.5 million by late 2019. Over the same period, the number of impoverished counties in China decreased from 832 to 52. The most recent report from the World Bank in 2018 shows that the literacy rate in China was 96.84%, compared to just 20% in 1949.

The Epoch Times is a far-right[1] international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement.[29] The newspaper, based in New York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television.[30] The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked in mainland China.[31]

The Epoch Times opposes the Chinese Communist Party,[32][33][22] hosts far-right politicians in Europe,[9][11][22] and has supported former President Donald Trump in the U.S.[34][35] A 2019 report by NBC News showed it to be the second-largest funder of pro-Trump Facebook advertising after the Trump campaign itself.[30][36][22] The Epoch Times frequently runs stories promoting other Falun Gong-affiliated groups, such as the performing arts company Shen Yun.[34][24][37] The Epoch Media Group's news sites and YouTube channels have promoted conspiracy theories such as QAnon, the Great Replacement, anti-vaccine misinformation[41] and false claims of fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election.[44] In June 2024, allegations of money laundering were leveled at the group's chief financial officer.[45]

The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 by John Tang and other Chinese Americans affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement.[22] Tang was a graduate student in Georgia at the time; he began the newspaper in his basement.[34] The founders said they were responding to censorship inside China and a lack of international understanding about the Chinese government's repression of Falun Gong.[46][47]

By 2003, The Epoch Times website and group of newspapers had grown into one of the largest Chinese-language news sites and newspaper groups outside China, with local editions in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and major Western European countries.[48] The first English edition launched online in September 2003, followed by the first print edition in 2004.[49] The English Australian edition was launched in Sydney in 2005.[30]

Nick Couldry and James Curran wrote in 2003 that the paper represents a "major step in the evolution of Falun Gong-related alternative media" and may be part of a de facto media alliance with democracy activists in exile.[50] In 2003, sociologist Yuezhi Zhao wrote that the paper "displays an indisputable ideological and organizational affinity with Falun Gong" and that it strongly emphasizes negative portrayals of the Chinese government and positive portrayals of Falun Gong. Per Zhao, Epoch portrays itself as neutral, independent, and public-interest oriented.[48]

In 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that "three new U.S.-based, Chinese-language media outlets that provide provocative reporting about the Communist Party, government oppression and social unrest in China (namely The Epoch Times, Sound of Hope, and NTDTV) have ties to the Falun Gong spiritual movement." When interviewed, executives at each outlet claimed they did not represent the Falun Gong movement as a whole.[32]

Associated Press reporter Nahal Toosi wrote in 2006 that it is "technically inaccurate" to say that Falun Gong owns The Epoch Times, though many of the paper's staff are Falun Gong practitioners.[51] Toosi noted: "some observers" have said that Falun Gong uses the newspaper for its public relations campaigns and that the paper is connected with the group and carries sympathetic coverage of it.[56]

The English Epoch Times chair Stephen Gregory has denied that The Epoch Times is directly connected to Falun Gong.[51][57][58] Independent reporters in the U.S. have confirmed the connection.[30][34][57]

In 2008, David Ownby, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Universit de Montral and the author of Falun Gong and the Future of China, said Falun Gong practitioners set up the newspaper with their own money. He described The Epoch Times as wishing to be taken seriously as a global newspaper rather than being judged on the basis of its strong association with Falun Gong. He wrote: "Epoch Times is a newspaper with a mission, that of reporting on issues bearing on human rights throughout the world, which allows for considerable focus on China and Falun Gong."[47]

Canadian scholar Clement Tong wrote[52][59][60][61][62][excessive citations] The Epoch Times "operates as a mouthpiece" for Falun Gong without an official statement of affiliation with the movement.[60]

In 2009, Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, appeared at the newspaper's headquarters in Manhattan and called for the expansion of The Epoch Times to "become regular media".[30] Li has called The Epoch Times "our media", along with the NTD digital production company and the Shen Yun dance troupe.[30][63] Two former employees said that top editors traveled to meet with Li at Falun Gong's compound, Dragon Springs, where he weighed in on editorial and strategic decisions; The Epoch Times denied that a meeting took place.[34]

Former Epoch Times employees have noted Falun Gong practitioners' involvement in the management and editorial process.[30] Three anonymous former employees said Epoch Times workers were encouraged to attend weekly "Fa study" sessions outside work hours to study Li's teachings.[64] Former employees have said that criticizing The Epoch Times amounts to disobeying Li.[34]

The Epoch Times runs frequent promotional stories about the related Shen Yun dance troupe. The New Yorker's review of Shen Yun called The Epoch Times "the world's foremost purveyor of Shen Yun content."[24]

In a 2018 report, the conservative think tank Hoover Institution wrote, "the space for truly independent Chinese-language media in the United States has shrunk to a few media outlets supported by the adherents of Falun Gong, the banned religious sect in China, and a small publication and website called Vision Times", the report noting that the latter is also associated with Falun Gong.[65]

In a 2019 report, Reporters Without Borders wrote, "Aside from the Epoch Times newspaper and New Tang Dynasty Television, which are run by the Falun Gong, a religious movement persecuted in China, and China Digital Times, a website founded by a leading US-based critic of the regime, the United States now has few truly independent diaspora media."[66]

In 2019, an NBC News investigative report suggested The Epoch Times's political coverage may be affected by Falun Gong believers' anticipation of a judgment day in which communists are sent to hell and Falun Gong's allies are spared. Former Epoch Times employees told NBC News that Donald Trump is viewed as a key anti-communist ally,[30] allegedly hastening that judgment day.[67]

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