The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times is a far-right international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement. The newspaper, based in New York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operates New Tang Dynasty Television. The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked in mainland China.
The Epoch Times opposes the Chinese Communist Party, promotes far-right politicians and movements in Europe, and has supported President Donald Trump in the U.S. A 2019 report by NBC News showed it to be the second-largest funder of pro-Trump Facebook advertising after the Trump campaign itself. The Epoch Times frequently runs stories promoting other Falun Gong–affiliated groups, such as the performing arts company Shen Yun. The Epoch Media Group's news sites and YouTube channels have promoted conspiracy theories such as QAnon, the Great Replacement, anti-vaccine misinformation and false claims of fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election. In June 2024, the group's chief financial officer, Bill Guan, was indicted for money laundering.
History and relation to Falun Gong
The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 by John Tang and other Chinese Americans affiliated with the Falun Gong new religious movement. Tang was a graduate student in Georgia at the time; he began the newspaper in his basement. 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. The Chinese Communist Party has banned Falun Gong.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. The first English edition launched online in 2003, followed by the first print edition in 2004. The English Australian edition was launched in Sydney in 2005.
Nick Couldry and James Curran wrote in 2003 that the newspaper 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. In 2003, sociologist Yuezhi Zhao wrote that the newspaper "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, The Epoch Times portrays itself as neutral, independent, and public-interest oriented.
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 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.
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 newspaper's staff members are Falun Gong practitioners. Toosi noted: "some observers" have said that Falun Gong uses the newspaper for its public relations campaigns and that the newspaper is connected with the group and carries sympathetic coverage of it.
The English Epoch Times chair Stephen Gregory has denied that The Epoch Times is directly connected to Falun Gong. Independent reporters in the U.S. have confirmed the connection.
In 2008, David Ownby, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Université de Montréal 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."
Canadian scholar Clement Tong wrote that The Epoch Times "operates as a mouthpiece" for Falun Gong without an official statement of affiliation with the movement.
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". Li has called The Epoch Times "our media", along with the NTD digital production company and the Shen Yun dance troupe. 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 ever took place.
Former Epoch Times employees have noted Falun Gong practitioners' involvement in the management and editorial process. Former employees, some speaking anonymously, have said Epoch Times workers were encouraged to attend weekly "Fa study" sessions outside work hours to study Li's teachings. Former employees have said that criticizing The Epoch Times amounts to disobeying Li.
The Epoch Times runs frequent promotional stories about the related Shen Yun dance troupe. The New Yorker review of Shen Yun called The Epoch Times "the world's foremost purveyor of Shen Yun content". Since 2009, The Epoch Times has published at least 17,000 articles related to Shen Yun, promoting it and attacking its critics by insinuating that they are agents of the Chinese Communist Party.
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.
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 U.S.-based critic of the regime, the United States now has few truly independent diaspora media."
In 2019, an NBC News investigative report suggested The Epoch Times 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, allegedly hastening that judgment day.
In 2020, Vox identified China Uncensored and NTD as affiliates of The Epoch Times, as part of a multilingual "media empire".
The Epoch Times sold a building in Middletown, New York, to Falun Gong-aligned website company Gan Jing World in 2022, with the building then opening as Gan Jing World's headquarters in July 2022. The Falun Dafa Gan Jing World Foundation was incorporated in 2023 at the same building in Middletown. Gan Jing World's director of media relations, Nick Janicki, has denied that there is any corporate connection between Gan Jing World and the Epoch Times, but said the founders are "good friends". The Epoch Times publishes articles promoting Gan Jing World, presenting them as news. In turn, media owned by Epoch Media Group are promoted on the Gan Jing World website, including on the front page. Gan Jing World's content consists of videos that are often republished from YouTube without the original creator's consent. In 2024, YouTube issued a cease and desist order to Gan Jing World for unauthorized republishing of content obtained from YouTube.
In 2024, The Epoch Times entered the film industry with Epoch Studios and its first release, The Firing Squad starring Kevin Sorbo and Cuba Gooding Jr. The film was written and directed by Timothy A. Chey, and co-produced by Epoch Studios. The executive director of Epoch Studios, Sally Sun, has previously supervised Epoch documentaries and streaming specials.
Finances
According to NBC News, "little is publicly known about the precise ownership, origins or influences of The Epoch Times", and it is loosely organized into several regional tax-free nonprofits, under the umbrella of the Epoch Media Group, together with New Tang Dynasty Television. The Epoch Times limits its expenses by primarily hiring unsalaried part-time volunteers.The newspaper's revenue has increased rapidly in recent years, from $3.8million in 2016 to $8.1million in 2017, $12.4million in 2018, and $15.5million in 2019. Tax documents indicate that between 2012 and 2016, the group received $900,000 from a principal at Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund led at the time by the conservative political donor Robert Mercer. Chris Kitze, a former NBC executive and creator of the fake news website Before It's News, who also manages a cryptocurrency hedge fund, joined the newspaper's board as vice president in 2017.
A 2020 New York Times report called The Epoch Times recent wealth "something of a mystery". Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, who produced a documentary with NTD, said "I'd give them a number" on a project budget and "they'd come back and say, 'We're good for that number.'" Former employees say they were told The Epoch Times is financed by subscriptions, ads, and donations from wealthy Falun Gong practitioners.
Between 2019 and 2021, The Epoch Times increased its revenue by 685 percent, reaching $122million in 2021. Since 2019, it has gone mostly digital, spending millions on Facebook and YouTube advertisements., The Epoch Times claimed to be the US newspaper with the fourth-highest number of subscribers; this ranking cannot be verified as circulation data is not audited by independent organizations.
As of 2024, The Epoch Times is one of the most popular free news apps in the Apple store, ahead of the Associated Press, NBC News, and the BBC. Its YouTube videos also receive millions of views. The Hong Kong Free Press has described The Epoch Times as "one of the most powerful digital publishers in the U.S."