 | |
 Front page ofThe Epoch Times New York edition for March 18, 2016 | |
| Type | International newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Epoch Media Group |
| Founder | John Tang |
| Publisher | Epoch Media Group |
| Founded | May 20, 2000; 25 years ago (2000-05-20) |
| Political alignment | Far-right[1] |
| Language | Multiple, mainly Chinese and English |
| Headquarters | 229 W. 28th St.,New York, NY 10001,United States of America |
| Website | theepochtimes |
| The Epoch Times | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 大紀元時報 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 大纪元时报 | ||||||
| |||||||
The Epoch Times is afar-right[1] international multi-language newspaper and media company affiliated with theFalun Gongnew religious movement.[9][10][11][12] The newspaper, based inNew York City, is part of the Epoch Media Group, which also operatesNew Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television.[13]The Epoch Times has websites in 35 countries but is blocked inmainland China.[14]
The Epoch Times opposes theChinese Communist Party,[15][16][12] promotes far-right politicians and movements in Europe,[17][18][12] and has supported PresidentDonald Trump in the U.S.[19][20] A 2019 report byNBC News showed it to be the second-largest funder of pro-TrumpFacebook advertising after the Trump campaign itself.[13][21][12]The Epoch Times frequently runs stories promoting other Falun Gong–affiliated groups, such as the performing arts companyShen Yun.[19][22][23] The Epoch Media Group's news sites andYouTube channels have promotedconspiracy theories such asQAnon, theGreat Replacement,anti-vaccine misinformation andfalse claims of fraud in the 2020 United States presidential election.[30] In June 2024, the group'schief financial officer, Bill Guan, was indicted formoney laundering.[31]
The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 by John Tang and otherChinese Americans affiliated with theFalun Gong new religious movement.[12] Tang was a graduate student inGeorgia at the time; he began the newspaper in his basement.[19] 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.[32][33] The Chinese Communist Party has banned Falun Gong.[34]
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.[35] The first English edition launched online in 2003, followed by the first print edition in 2004.[36] The English Australian edition was launched inSydney in 2005.[13]
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 ade facto media alliance with democracy activists in exile.[37] In 2003, sociologistYuezhi 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.[35]
In 2005, theSan 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 (namelyThe 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.[15]
Associated Press reporterNahal Toosi wrote in 2006 that it is "technically inaccurate" to say that Falun Gong ownsThe 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.[38]
The EnglishEpoch Times chair Stephen Gregory has denied thatThe Epoch Times is directly connected to Falun Gong.[38][39][40] Independent reporters in the U.S. have confirmed the connection.[13][19][39]
In 2008, David Ownby, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at theUniversité de Montréal and the author ofFalun Gong and the Future of China, said Falun Gong practitioners set up the newspaper with their own money. He describedThe 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 onhuman rights throughout the world, which allows for considerable focus on China and Falun Gong."[33]
Canadian scholar Clement Tong wrote thatThe Epoch Times "operates as a mouthpiece" for Falun Gong without an official statement of affiliation with the movement.[41]
In 2009,Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, appeared at the newspaper's headquarters in Manhattan and called for the expansion ofThe Epoch Times to "become regular media".[13] Li has calledThe Epoch Times "our media", along with the NTD digital production company and the Shen Yun dance troupe.[13][42] 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.[19]
FormerEpoch Times employees have noted Falun Gong practitioners' involvement in the management and editorial process.[13] Former employees, some speaking anonymously, have saidEpoch Times workers were encouraged to attend weekly "Fa study" sessions outside work hours to study Li's teachings.[43][44] Former employees have said that criticizingThe Epoch Times amounts to disobeying Li.[19]
The Epoch Times runs frequent promotional stories about the relatedShen Yun dance troupe.The New Yorker's review of Shen Yun calledThe Epoch Times "the world's foremost purveyor of Shen Yun content".[22] 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.[44]
In a 2018 report, the conservative think tankHoover 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 calledVision Times", the report noting that the latter is also associated with Falun Gong.[45]
In a 2019 report,Reporters Without Borders wrote, "Aside from theEpoch Times newspaper and New Tang Dynasty Television, which are run by the Falun Gong, a religious movement persecuted in China, andChina 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."[46]
In 2019, anNBC News investigative report suggestedThe 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. FormerEpoch Times employees told NBC News that Donald Trump is viewed as a key anti-communist ally,[13] allegedly hastening that judgment day.[47]
In 2020,Vox identifiedChina Uncensored and NTD as affiliates ofThe Epoch Times, as part of a multilingual "media empire".[48]
The Epoch Times sold a building inMiddletown, 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.[49] Gan Jing World's director of media relations, Nick Janicki, has denied that there is any corporate connection between Gan Jing World and theEpoch Times, but said the founders are "good friends".[50]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 fromYouTube without the original creator's consent.[50] In 2024, YouTube issued acease and desist order to Gan Jing World for unauthorized republishing of content obtained from YouTube.[51]
In 2024,The Epoch Times entered the film industry with Epoch Studios (a branch of the Epoch Times Association) and its first release,The Firing Squad starringKevin Sorbo andCuba Gooding Jr. The film was written and directed byTimothy A. Chey, and co-produced by Epoch Studios. The executive director of Epoch Studios, Sally Sun, has previously supervised Epoch documentaries and streaming specials.[52]
According toNBC News, "little is publicly known about the precise ownership, origins or influences ofThe Epoch Times", and it is loosely organized into several regionaltax-free nonprofits, under the umbrella of the Epoch Media Group, together withNew Tang Dynasty Television.[13][19]The Epoch Times limits its expenses by primarily hiring unsalaried part-time volunteers.[53][54]
The newspaper's revenue has increased rapidly in recent years, from $3.8 million in 2016 (equivalent to $5 million in 2024) to $8.1 million in 2017 (with spending of $7.2 million), $12.4 million in 2018,[55] and $15.5 million in 2019.[56][57] Tax documents indicate that between 2012 and 2016, the group received $900,000 from a principal atRenaissance Technologies, a hedge fund led at the time by the conservative political donorRobert Mercer.[58] Chris Kitze, a formerNBC executive and creator of the fake news websiteBefore It's News, who also manages acryptocurrencyhedge fund, joined the newspaper's board as vice president in 2017.[55]
A 2020New York Times report calledThe Epoch Times's recent wealth "something of a mystery".Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman ofBreitbart 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 toldThe Epoch Times is financed by subscriptions, ads, and donations from wealthy Falun Gong practitioners.[19]
Between 2019 and 2021,The Epoch Times increased its revenue by 685 percent, reaching $122 million in 2021. Since 2019, it has gone mostly digital, spending millions on Facebook and YouTube advertisements (Facebook later banned the website, saying it "leveraged foreign actors posing as Americans to push political content"). As of 2023[update],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.[59]
As of 2024,The Epoch Times is one of the most popular free news apps in theApple store, ahead of the Associated Press, NBC News, and theBBC.[34] Its YouTube videos also receive millions of views. TheHong Kong Free Press has describedThe Epoch Times as "one of the most powerful digital publishers in the U.S."[60]
On June 3, 2024, thechief financial officer ofThe Epoch Times, Weidong "Bill" Guan, was indicted on federal charges in theSouthern District of New York and charged with one count of conspiring to commitmoney laundering and two counts ofbank fraud in a transnational scheme that lasted from 2020 to May 2024.[31][61] TheDepartment of Justice (DOJ) said that under Guan's leadership,The Epoch Times's Make Money Online team had purchased crime proceeds usingcryptocurrency and transferred them into bank accounts held by entities affiliated withThe Epoch Times.[61][62] According to the DOJ, tens of millions in money laundered funds were transferred toThe Epoch Times's bank accounts, inflating its revenue by 410 percent.[31]
The Epoch Times said in a statement that Guan was "innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt", adding that it had "suspended him until this matter is resolved".[63] Founder John Tang later resigned from his role as CEO and the company's management was handed over to a transitional team. On July 1, 2024, Janice Trey was appointed as interim CEO.[64] In response to the incident, the newspaper published statements written by Li Hongzhi, which criticized the newspaper's alleged financial misconduct and partisanship, calling on Falun Gong practitioners to cease making personal attacks on American political figures.[65]
The Epoch Times publishes in 21 languages and 33 countries,[12] and has print editions in eight languages: Chinese, English, Spanish, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and Indonesian.[14] Special print editions have also been erratically published in France.[66]
Between 2013 and 2020,The Epoch Times created 117,274 Facebook posts, rapidly increasing its social media audience by publishing its own far-right political content interspersed withclickbait entertainment videos obtained from media licensing companies such asJukin Media.[2] According to a Facebook report released in August 2021, a subscription page forThe Epoch Times received 44.2 million views between April and June 2021.[28] Facebook data showed that one of the most popular pages in the first quarter of 2021 was a page run byThe Epoch Times.[25][67] With 9.1 million Facebook followers in November 2021,The Epoch Times exceeded the follower counts of far-right news organizationsBreitbart News andNewsmax at the time.[2]
Videos and ads from the Epoch Media Group, includingThe Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty (NTD), totaled three billion views on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in April 2019, according to the analytics company Tubular. This ranked it 11th among all video creators, and ahead of any other traditional news publisher, according to NBC News.[13]
As of 2021[update],The Epoch Times was the seventh most followed account onGab, asocial networking service known for its far-right userbase.[68]
In 2024, billboards appeared in multiple U.S. cities marketingThe Epoch Times's website with the slogan "#1 Trusted News" alongside a portrait of its reporter Joshua Philipp. Local news outlets questioned the veracity of the slogan in light ofThe Epoch Times's history of publishing misinformation and the DOJ's indictment of its chief financial officer.[69][70][71][72]
The Epoch Times is an ardent opponent of theChinese Communist Party,[13] and politically adoptsultraconservative views.[73] Since a shift in the newspaper's approach in 2016, the newspaper received significant attention for its favorable coverage of theTrump administration,[13][21] theAmerican far-right,[74] theGerman far-right,[17][75] and theFrench far-right.[18][73]
The Epoch Times says it is "independent," but other news outlets have questioned this claim.[76]
According to NBC News,The Epoch Times "generally stayed out of U.S. politics" before 2016 "unless they dovetailed with Chinese interests." Ben Hurley, a former Falun Gong practitioner andEpoch Times writer until 2013, said the newspaper was critical of abortion and LGBT people and that Falun Gong practitioners "saw communism everywhere," including in internationalist figures likeHillary Clinton andKofi Annan, "but there was more room for disagreements in the early days."[13]
Since 2016, according to NBC News,The Epoch Times has promoted favorable coverage of Trump's campaign and presidency, and emphasized topics likeIslamic terrorism andillegal immigration to the United States. It has also emphasized "what the publication claims isa labyrinthian, global conspiracy led by [Hillary] Clinton and former President Barack Obama to tear down Trump."[13]
According to private statements from topEpoch Times journalists, Falun Gong founder Li directed the newspaper to increase its coverage of Trump in 2016.[44] A formerEpoch Times reporter who covered the 2016 campaign, Steve Klett, said his editors had encouraged favorable coverage of Trump after he won the Republican nomination, and that "they seemed to have this almost messianic way of viewing Trump as the anti-Communist leader who would bring about the end of the Chinese Communist Party."[19] After Trump was elected,The Epoch Times hired Brendan Steinhauser, aTea Party strategist, to reach out to more conservatives and encourage the Trump administration to oppose the persecution of Falun Gong.[19]
The Epoch Times picks up mainstreamnewswire stories and in some places can resemble a community newspaper.[77] According to sociologist Yuezhi Zhao, "While mainstream newspapers typically treat Web versions as an extension of the already-existing print version,The Epoch Times website serves as the master for all its worldwide papers."[35]
The Epoch Times is known for allegingconspiracies involving former Communist Party general secretaryJiang Zemin,[78] under whose administration Falun Gong was suppressed in China.
The newspaper is at odds with theTaiwanese-owned and U.S.-based Chinese language newspaperWorld Journal, calling it a "megaphone for the evil Chinese Communist Party."[78]
In 2017, the German editionThe Epoch Times Deutschland, which became online-only in 2012, was described by online magazineThe China File as aligned with the German far-right, and attractive to supporters of theAlternative for Germany (AfD) party and the anti-immigrant groupPegida.[17] Stefanie Albrecht, a reporter for the German broadcaster RTL who spent several days insideThe Epoch Times's Berlin office while investigating the far right, said that the staffers she met were all Falun Gong practitioners who had no journalistic training and did notcheck facts, trusting instead in the alternative sources they consulted. During her time atThe Epoch Times's office, Albrecht was exposed to debunked conspiracy theories such asPizzagate, thechemtrail conspiracy theory,weather-changing machines, and theGreat Replacement.[18][12]
InFrance,The Epoch Times has given "an unfettered platform toJean-Marie Le Pen, the patriarch of the French far right, and his daughter,Marine, who leads the nationalist party her father founded," according toThe New Republic.[18]
The Epoch Times publishesclimate change denial content.[28][79] It promotes doubt about modern science and medicine, in line with Falun Gong's teachings. Elise Thomas of theInstitute for Strategic Dialogue noted, "Falun Gong has a history of rejecting modern medicine, which obviously intersects neatly with the beliefs of manyanti-vax communities." Ben Hurley said, "They've been anti-medicine for a long time. Ex-believers know many people that have died from treatable conditions. It's their belief that they don't need medicine, because they're superhuman beings."[36]
An NBC News article stated that during the runup to the 2020 election, the "conspiracy-fueled Epoch Times" greatly increased its reach by supporting Trump, especially "parroting his lies about the election," to become one of the most influential conservative news media outlets in the U.S. In two years, the news outlet grew its revenue by 685%.[59]
In July 2023, Falun Gong founder Li toldEpoch Times journalists that it should not favor one political party over the other. Following the allegations of money laundering by the newspaper's CFO, Li issued a statement calling on Falun Gong adherents not to attack politicians from either political party.[44] Howard Polskin, founder of The Righting, says that this may signal theEpoch Times changing its brand.[65] For example, the NBC News article noted thatTheEpoch Times did not endorse a 2024 candidate and hired mainstream news veterans not affiliated with Falun Gong.[59]
In October 2025, a formerEpoch Times reporter, Andrew Thornebrooke, stated that (contrary to most newsrooms) journalists at the newspaper are not permitted to review the final versions of their articles prior to publication. According to Thornebrooke, this practice has led to false information being inserted into articles without the knowledge of the author.[80]
In 2004, the Chinese version ofThe Epoch Times published a series of editorials titled "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party". The editorials argued that China would not be free or prosperous until it was rid of the party, which it said was at odds with China's cultural and spiritual values.[81]The Epoch Times also organized a campaign called theTuidang movement, urging people to quit the Chinese Communist Party, and said that more than two million people had resigned.[82] A report by theOpenNet Initiative said that 90 percent of websites mentioning the phrase "Nine Commentaries" were blocked in mainland China as of 2005.[83][84]
Li Yi, a Hong Kong-based democratic activist, questionedThe Epoch Times's claims about the number of resignations in anApple Daily opinion piece in 2006, warned that theTuidang movement could be using "lies to fight lies", and wrote that the propagandistic nature of the movement could hurt the integrity of the pro-democracy community.[85]
Caylan Ford, a former staff writer forThe Epoch Times, wrote in a 2009 guest opinion article inThe Christian Science Monitor that millions of copies of the "Nine Commentaries" articles were circulated in China by email, fax, and underground printing houses. Ford wrote that the campaign differed from the 1989 and 2008 democracy movements in China by drawing on Buddhist and Daoist spirituality.[81]
In 2012, a formerPeople's Liberation Army Air Force officer testified to theUnited States Congressional-Executive Commission on China that he had been sentenced to four years of prison for distributing a "Nine Commentaries" DVD in Beijing.[86]
TheTuidang movement was called one of the top global events in 2011 by Russian economistAndrey Illarionov, who cited claims byThe Epoch Times that over 100 million people had quit.[87]
According to China scholar David Ownby, the Nine Commentaries are a "condemnation of communism and a direct indictment of the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party's rule in China". While acknowledging the "unnecessary violence" the Chinese Communist Party has inflicted, Ownby finds that the lack of balance and nuance in tone and style makes the editorials resemble "anti-Communist propaganda written in Taiwan in the 1950s".[33] Journalist Oscar Schwartz called the Nine Commentaries a "quasi-McCarthyist screed".[88]
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The Epoch Times has promoted an array of pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theories[89][90][91] and is known as one of Trump's closest media allies and defenders.[89][21]
The paper has financially benefited from its promotion of Trump conspiracies, increasing its revenue nearly fourfold during the first three years of Trump's administration (from $3.9 million in 2016 to $15.5 million in 2019) as it catered to Trump's most ardent supporters, to whom the paper marketed itself via targeted social media advertising.[28][92]
The publication championed Trump'sSpygate conspiracy theory in its news coverage and advertising, and the Epoch Media Group'sEdge of Wonder videos on YouTube spread the far-right, pro-TrumpQAnon conspiracy theory[13] and embraced false QAnon claims.[93]
An NBC News report found that two ofEdge of Wonder's hosts were a creative director and chief photo editor atThe Epoch Times. The newspaper promotedEdge of Wonder videos in dozens of Facebook posts through 2019.[13]
In September 2019, during theTrump–Ukraine scandal,Hunter Biden'sWikipedia article included dubious claims about his business dealings in Ukraine and his fatherJoe Biden's motivations for going after a Ukrainian prosecutor; the claims were sourced toThe Epoch Times andThe New American.[94]The Epoch Times promoted the conspiracy theory thatJoe Biden had abused his power in 2016 to protect Hunter's business interests in Ukraine.[95]
During the February2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses,The Epoch Times shared viraldisinformation from the conservative groupJudicial Watch that falsely alleged inflated voter rolls.[96][97] The disinformation, which went viral on Facebook, was debunked by fact checkers and the Iowa secretary of state.[97][98][99] A Harvard media expert said thatThe Epoch Times employed a "classic disinformation tactic" known as "trading up the chain", in which false stories are repackaged and shared.[96]
After Trump lost the2020 United States presidential election,The Epoch Times consistently sought to question the election results.[20] The organization produced a 93-minute video that falsely suggested widespread fraud in the counting; one interviewee, attorneyLin Wood, falsely alleged thatChina had bought an American election vendor.[29] Versions of the video on YouTube, theEpoch Times website, andNTD were viewed hundreds of thousands of times.[29]
The Epoch Times created a network of seven newYouTube channels to disseminate election disinformation and other false claims, including falsehoods about theNashville Christmas Day bombing.[89] Only one of the seven YouTube channels disclosed its ties toThe Epoch Times or Falun Gong.[89] In the two and a half months after their creation, the disinformation channels garnered tens of millions of views and at least 1.1 million subscribers.[89]
One of the channels ("Eye Opener With Michael Lewis") portrays itself as an independent effort by the host "and a few friends".[89] After the videos' false and misleading claims were reported, YouTube removed several of the videos in accordance with the site's policy against election disinformation.[89]
The newspaper helped publicize the January 6, 2021, Trump rally in Washington, D.C., that led to thestorming of the Capitol by a violent pro-Trump mob. Afterward, one of its columnists suggested that the riot was a "false flag" operation,[20][100] and Michael Lewis'sEpoch Times-linked YouTube channel echoed the same lie, suggesting that the Capitol attack was orchestrated by "antifa" as part of an "old Communist tactic".[89]
The Epoch Times has spreadmisinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in print and via social media including Facebook and YouTube.[101][102] In 2022, Raquel Miguel of the European watchdog EU DisinfoLab said, "The Epoch Times has played a noticeable role in transmitting and amplifying many anti-vaccine narratives".[12] According to Josef Holnburger of theCenter for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, a German extremism monitoring agency,The Epoch Times's German edition has been the most shared outlet among Germany's COVID-skeptic movement.[36]
It has promoted anti-CCP rhetoric andconspiracy theories about the pandemic, for example through an eight-page special edition called "How the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World", which was distributed unsolicited in April 2020 to mail customers in the United States, Canada, and Australia,[103][104] and in June 2020 in the United Kingdom.[105]
In the newspaper, theSARS-CoV-2 virus is known as the "CCP virus",[101][103][95] and a commentary in the newspaper posed the question, "is the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan an accident occasioned by weaponizing the virus at that [Wuhan P4 virology] lab?"[101][103] The newspaper's editorial board suggested that COVID-19 patients cure themselves by "condemning the CCP" and "maybe a miracle will happen".[55]
In France, "special" French-language print editions ofThe Epoch Times were distributed in 2021 during anti-Health passprotests.[66] In Germany,The Epoch Times has published articles blasting the legitimacy ofPCR tests and promoting conspiracy theories about vaccination mishaps.[12]
The misinformation trackerNewsGuard called the French page ofThe Epoch Times one of the "super-spreaders" of COVID-19 misinformation on Facebook, citing anEpoch Times article that suggested the virus was artificially created.[106][107] NewsGuard later changed the rating of the English edition ofThe Epoch Times from "green" to "red".[14]
A February 2020Epoch Times story shared a map from the internet that falsely alleged massive sulfur dioxide releases from crematoria during theCOVID-19 pandemic in China, speculating that 14,000 bodies may have been burned.[108] A fact check byAFP reported that the map was a NASA forecast taken out of context.[108]
A widely viewed video released byThe Epoch Times on April 7, 2020, was flagged by Facebook as "partly false" for "the unsupported hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 is a bioengineered virus released from a Wuhan research laboratory". The video featuredJudy Mikovits, an anti-vaccination activist.[109][110] The fact-checker Health Feedback said of the video that "several of its core scientific claims are false and its facts, even when accurate, are often presented in a misleading way".[102] The video was a 54-minute feature on Joshua Philipp'sCrossroads EpochTV series.[20][110]
In April 2020, aCanadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) story reported that some Canadians were upset to receive a special edition ofThe Epoch Times that called COVID-19 the "CCP virus". The CBC later retracted a headline on its story that had quoted a recipient saying the special edition was "racist and inflammatory", and the CBC also retracted a claim thatThe Epoch Times edition had concluded that COVID-19 was a bioweapon.[103] Opinion columns published by conservative tabloidThe Toronto Sun accused the CBC of bias againstThe Epoch Times[111][112] and said the CBC's report may have misled readers into thinkingThe Epoch Times was spreading anti-Asian sentiment.[112]
In February 2021, an investigator for EU DisinfoLab found thatTierra Pura, a Spanish-language website first launched in Argentina in March 2020 that publishes COVID-19 misinformation, is closely linked toThe Epoch Times and Falun Gong. At the time, the site was the most shared outlet in Spain's COVID-19-skepticTelegram channels and groups.The Epoch Times andTierra Pura denied being linked.[113][114][115]
In January 2022, the German edition ofThe Epoch Times amplified accusations by German activist Steffen Löhnitz that the Austrian government had deliberately inflated infection numbers to justify a lockdown. It said Löhnitz had been digging up "correct numbers" and reported his claims of "massive fraud" as fact. TheEpoch Times story was shared by figures fromQuerdenken, Germany's anti-lockdown movement.[12]
In 2010, the newspaper ran an interview with Canadian Conservative Member of ParliamentRob Anders wherein Anders alleged that the Chinese government used gifts and business deals in attempts to influence Canadian political decisions.[116][117]
The Epoch Times published a web series with conservative commentatorLarry Elder, a candidate in the 2021 recall election against California governorGavin Newsom.[118] Elder hosted "The Larry Elder Show" three times a week, covering Republican politics and other issues.[119]
The Epoch Media Group spent $11 million on Facebook ads in 2019,[20] including, over a six-month period in 2019, more than $1.5 million on about 11,000 pro-Trump Facebook advertisements purchased byThe Epoch Times.[13][120][20] According to publicly available Facebook ad data reported by NBC News,The Epoch Times spent more on pro-Trump ads than any group except the Trump campaign itself.[13][120]
Political ad spending on Facebook in April 2019 through an account called "Coverage of the Trump Presidency by The Epoch Times" exceeded any politician's spending except Trump's andJoe Biden's. JournalistJudd Legum wrote in May 2019 thatThe Epoch Times ads were "boosting Donald Trump and floating conspiracy theories about Joe Biden".[121]
In August 2019,Facebook bannedThe Epoch Times from advertising on its platform after finding that the newspaper broke its political transparency rules by publishing pro-Trump subscription ads throughsockpuppet pages such as "Honest Paper" and "Pure American Journalism".[47][122] A Facebook representative told NBC: "Over the past year we removed accounts associated withThe Epoch Times for violating our ad policies, including trying to get around our review systems."[47]
The Epoch Times publisher Stephen Gregory wrote in response that the newspaper did not intend to violate Facebook's rules and that its video ads were advertisements for subscriptions to the newspaper.[47]
After Facebook banned it from advertising, the newspaper shifted its spending toYouTube, where it has spent more than $1.8 million on ads, some promoting conspiracy theories, since May 2018.[43][19] YouTube demonetizedEdge of Wonder, a program of the Epoch Media Group, on its platform, and removedEpoch Times ads relating to COVID-19.[123]
In October 2019, the fact-checking websiteSnopes reported close links betweenThe Epoch Times and a large network of Facebook pages and groups calledThe BL (The Beauty of Life) that shared pro-Trump views and conspiracy theories such asQAnon. At that time,The BL had spent at least $510,698 on Facebook advertising.[124] Hundreds of the ads were removed for violations of Facebook's advertising rules. By December 2019, theBL network of pages had 28 million Facebook followers, according toSnopes.[125]
The editor-in-chief ofThe BL had previously worked as editor-in-chief ofThe Epoch Times, and several otherBL employees were listed as current or formerEpoch Times employees.[124]The BL was registered inMiddletown,New York, to an address that also was registered to Falun Gong'sSound of Hope radio network and was associated with the YouTube seriesBeyond Science, and Snopes found "the outlet as a whole is literally the English-language edition ofEpoch Times Vietnam".[124][125] Snopes also found thatThe BL was using more than 300 fake Facebook profiles based in Vietnam and other countries, using names, stock photos and celebrity photos in their profiles to emulate Americans, to administer more than 150 pro-Trump Facebook groups amplifying its content.[125][126]
The Epoch Times andThe BL denied being affiliated with each other, although the latter acknowledged that a "few of our staff" previously worked forThe Epoch Times.[124]
In December 2019, Facebook announced it had removed a large network of accounts, pages, and groups linked to The BL and Epoch Media Group for coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign actor. The network had 55 million followers on Facebook and Instagram, and $9.5 million had been spent on Facebook ads through its accounts.[127]
The New York Times reported that The BL had used fake profile photos generated byartificial intelligence. TheAtlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab director Graham Brookie said the coordinated network of fake accounts demonstrated "an eerie, tech-enabled future of disinformation". Facebook's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said, "What's new here is that this is purportedly a U.S.-based media company leveraging foreign actors posing as Americans to push political content. We've seen it a lot with state actors in the past."[128][90]
In August 2020, Snopes reported thatThe BL had evaded Facebook's link ban by creating a clone namedThe Lion in July of that year. Facebook placed a link ban onThe Lion after Snopes contacted it.[129]
In August 2020, Facebook removed hundreds of fake accounts by a digital company called TruthMedia that promotedEpoch Times andNTD content and pro-Trump conspiracy theories aboutCOVID-19 andprotests in the United States.[130][131] The operation included 303 Facebook accounts, 181 pages, 44 Facebook groups, and 31Instagram accounts,[132] which in total were followed by more than two million people.[131] Snopes and NBC News reported that TruthMedia had ties to the Epoch Media Group,[133][131] but Stephen Gregory, publisher ofThe Epoch Times, denied this.[131]
TruthMedia, now banned from Facebook, continues to operate YouTube channels in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Vietnamese, and has accounts onPinterest andTwitter.[130] It appears to have begun apetition to the White House to "start calling the novel coronavirus the CCP virus".[131][130]
In March 2021,Politico reported that SafeChat, a social media platform rife withdisinformation and conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden that is popular with Trump supporters and Chinese dissidents, was closely linked toThe Epoch Times and Falun Gong.[134]
In some casesThe Epoch Times operates in a hostile overseas environment, in which "overseas Chinese media companies choosing to remain independent or publish non-approved content become the targets of an aggressive campaign of elimination or control".[135] In one instance, Chinese diplomatic officials made threats against media for reporting Falun Gong-related content; in other cases, advertisers and distributors have been threatened for supportingThe Epoch Times.[136] Communist Party authorities have been accused of resorting to "militant methods" against the paper and its staff, including attacking staff and destroying computer equipment.[135]
In 2006, theInternational Federation of Journalists criticized what it called a "dirty war" againstThe Epoch Times, citing incidents such asThe Epoch Times'sHong Kong printing plant being broken into and damaged by unidentified men, andThe Epoch Times's offices inSydney andToronto receiving suspicious mail envelopes suspected of containing toxic materials. The IFJ also noted incidences ofEpoch Times staff and advertisers being intimidated, and newspapers being confiscated, in what it characterized as "a vicious witch-hunt aimed at crushing the voice of dissent".[137]
The newspaper was briefly banned from Malaysia after coming under reported pressure by the Chinese Communist Party.[138]
In 2010, theBrisbane office of the Epoch Times was targeted in a drive-by shooting by two assailants with an air rifle. A projectile was fired through the front window of the office.[139][140]
In 2016, the newspaper was removed from the pharmacy ofAustralian National University after the president of theChinese Students and Scholars Association confronted the pharmacist and threw out the papers. The incident drew national media coverage over questions of Chinese government-sponsored overseas student organizations.[141][142]
In November 2019,Reporters Without Borders called onHong Kong Chief ExecutiveCarrie Lam to protect press freedoms afterThe Epoch Times said four masked arsonists with batons had damaged its printing press.[143] Additionally, in a 2019 report, Reporters Without Borders said thatThe Epoch Times's chief technical officer, Li Yuan, was assaulted in hisAtlanta,Georgia, home on February 8, 2006, by "suspected Chinese government agents" who took his two laptops.[46]
In April 2021, the Hong Kong printing facility was vandalized during working hours, in the presence of staff members. Masked men forced staffers to leave by threatening them with hammers and a knife, and proceeded to smash the office's computers, douse the printing machines with concrete mix, and steal computer parts.[144] The attack was captured byCCTV.[145][146]
In May 2021,Epoch Times reporter Leung Zhen was attacked by a man wielding a baseball bat from a passing vehicle.[147] She accused the Chinese Communist Party of orchestrating the attack.[148]
The 2022 filmDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was blocked from release in China after the film was submitted for review and footage that made reference toThe Epoch Times was found.[149]
The Hong Kong print edition of the newspaper ceased publication after September 17, 2024, due to the expiration of its printer's contract which could not be renewed.[150][151]
In 2006, a reporter with temporaryEpoch Times press credentials unfurled a protest banner and heckled China's leaderHu Jintao at a summit withPresident George W. Bush, shouting, "Stop him from killing!" and "Evil people will die early," prompting Chinese officials to refuse to attend a ceremonial lunch in protest.[152][153]The Epoch Times later disassociated itself from the reporter.[154]
In September 2018,Epoch Times photographer Samira Bouaou broke White House protocol and handed President Trump a folder.[54] In August 2020, theWhite House Correspondents' Association objected to the Trump administration's bending of COVID-19 social distancing rules in press briefings to favorThe Epoch Times,The Gateway Pundit, andOne America News Network.[155][95]
Ming Xia, a political science professor at theGraduate Center of the City University of New York, wrote in 2007 thatThe Epoch Times represents part ofFalun Gong's strategic effort to expand to non-practitioners, and "embed itself into the large civil society for influence and legitimacy".[38] In 2018, he stated thatThe Epoch Times staff "are not professional journalists and do not follow theprotocols professional journalists abide by."[54]
In his 2008 book on Falun Gong, China historian David Ownby wrote thatThe Epoch Times articles are "well written and interesting, if occasionally idiosyncratic in their coverage."[156][157] According to Ownby, the newspaper has been praised and also criticized for a perceived bias against the CCP, and support of Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents such as Tibetans, Taiwanese independence advocates, democracy activists, Uyghurs, and others. The newspaper is therefore often assessed in light of its connection to Falun Gong, rather than a thorough analysis of its editorial content.[33]
The misinformation trackerNewsGuard said thatThe Epoch Times "fails to gather and present information responsibly, rarely corrects or clarifies errors and remains opaque as to its ownership and funding."[12][14]
The Epoch Times has been criticized by some scholars for biases, particularly regarding the Chinese Communist Party and mainland China issues, as well as for being a "mouthpiece" of the Falun Gong movement.[163] James To, a New Zealand political scientist, describedThe Epoch Times as the "primary mouthpiece" of Falun Gong, writing that it "lacks credibility", despite the newspaper posing a "viable threat to the CCP" by publishing articles about the party's negative aspects.[164]
In his bookBlocked on Weibo: What Gets Suppressed on China's Version of Twitter and Why,University of Torontoresearch fellow Jason Q. Ng referred to the newspaper's coverage of mainland China issues as "heavily biased against the Communist Party" and thus its reportage "should be viewed skeptically."[165]
A 2018 report by theHoover Institution, a conservative think tank, calledThe Epoch Times one of the few independent Chinese-language media outlets in the U.S. not taken over by businessmen sympathetic to the Chinese government and one that remains "independent of PRC control."[45] The report also said that reports on China byThe Epoch Times and other outlets affiliated with Falun Gong, which is banned from China, are "uneven."[45]
In his 2019 book,Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora,sociologist Andrew Junker argued that "simply by increasing the plurality of voices in the diaspora Chinese-language public sphere,"The Epoch Times was "playing a progressive role" despite the Falun Gong community's "pariah status" limiting the publication's influence.[166]
Seth Hettena wrote inThe New Republic thatThe Epoch Times "has built a global propaganda machine, similar to Russia'sSputnik orRT, that pushes a mix ofalternative facts and conspiracy theories that has won it far-right acolytes around the world."[18]
Joan Donovan of theShorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy atHarvard University calledThe Epoch Times "a known disinformation operation."[96] Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor of communication atSyracuse University'sS. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said thatThe Epoch Times is "a notorious outlet that has been known to spread disinformation and misinformation."[28]
James Bettinger, a professor of communications atStanford University and the director of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships, said "Even ifEpoch Times is not associated with Falun Gong, if they consistently write about Falun Gong in the same perspective, or if there are no articles examining Falun Gong, people would perceive it as being not credible."[77] Orville Schell, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism atUniversity of California, Berkeley, said in 2005 that "It's hard to vouch for their quality because it's difficult to corroborate, but it's not something to be dismissed as pure propaganda."[15]
Jiao Guobiao, a former Beijing University journalism professor who was dismissed after criticizing the CCPpropaganda department, proposed that even ifThe Epoch Times published only negative information highly critical of the CCP, its attacks could never begin to counterbalance the propaganda the party publishes about itself. In addressing media balance, Jiao noted that the Chinese public lacked negative, critical information about their country. As such, he noted for a need of media balance based on the principles of freedom, equality, and legality, and that media balance "is the result of the collective imbalances of all."[159]
Haifeng Huang, professor of political science at the University of California, said, "I'm not exactly clear why they have become such a major pro-Trump voice," but "part of it is perhaps because they regard President Trump as tough on the Chinese government and therefore a natural ally for them."[43]
The web-only German edition of the newspaper,TheEpoch Times Deutschland, has aligned with the anti-immigrationfar-right in Germany, favorably commenting onAlternative for Germany andPegida while criticizing mainstream German media as untrustworthy.[17] Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian ofForeign Policy writes that "It's not clear why the German website of a Falun Gong newspaper would choose to promote right-wing populism in Germany," but that the decision could be a business decision to drive an increase in views of the publication, or because such views reflect the teaching of Falun Gong leaderLi Hongzhi, "who believes that mixed-race children are 'pitiable' and 'physically and intellectually incomplete.'"[17]
A German media report described the outlet as a "favorite" of Pegida supporters, along with Sputnik News andKopp Report, and found that its articles critical of immigration have been shared almost daily.[75]
A report by theInstitute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank, said the German edition ofThe Epoch Times "primarily runs anti-West, anti-American and pro-Kremlin content—a high proportion of this content is based on unverified information."[18][167]
In December 2019, theEnglish Wikipediadeprecated the English and Chinese online versions ofThe Epoch Times as an "unreliable source" to use as a reference in Wikipedia, with editors calling it "an advocacy group for the Falun Gong, and [...] a biased or opinionated source that frequently publishes conspiracy theories."[168]
In March 2022,Angelo Carusone, head of watchdog groupMedia Matters for America, said thatThe Epoch Times "go[es] where the center for the strongest infrastructure or possibility of getting as much audience and influence and reach is," and added that this complexity makes it "radically different and hard to understand." According to Carusone, the metric of success forThe Epoch Times is simply influence rather than money or a specific political agenda.[12]
The Epoch Times and its co-founder Dana Cheng suedMaine Beacon reporter Dan Neumann fordefamation after Neumann reported on Cheng's promotion of conspiracy theories about theJanuary 6 Capitol attack in June 2021. In October 2022, the newspaper lost an effort to revive the lawsuit, with the judges finding that the alleged defamatory reporting wassubstantially true.[169]
In 2014, the newspaper's reporting won several journalism awards, whichThe New York Times later described as indicative ofThe Epoch Times "edging closer to Mr. Li's vision of a respectable news outlet," before it changed course in 2015 and 2016 to focus on viral content and a "Trump pivot."[19]
In 2025,The Epoch Times won the Religion Communicators Council's Wilbur Award for its communication of religious issues, values, and themes as a secular media outlet.[170][171]
We examined the Facebook newsfeed history ofThe Epoch Times (N = 117,274 posts from 2013 to 2020), which transitioned from a niche anti-China publication to an influential player in US far-right politics. [...] Our case—The Epoch Times—is an important example of far-right media outlets using far-right political content to attract attention.
In contrast, Gab users who shared more far-right "fake news" websites are relatively more visible on Gab. Some of the most cited sources under this category include the Unhived Mind (N = 2,729), Epoch Times (N = 1,303), Natural News (N = 1,301), Breitbart (N = 769), the Gateway Pundit (N = 422), and InfoWars (N = 656).
Beyond US-based far-right news websites such asBreitbart,Infowars andEpoch Times, other alternative online media outlets include Australia-basedXYZ andThe Unshackled, Canada-basedRebel News and UK-basedPoliticalite.com andPoliticalUK.co.uk, just to name a few, which operate as far-right metapolitical channels and counter-publics that strive to influence mainstream culture and discourse (Holt, 2019).
The 26-minute video featured a discredited scientist, Dr. Judy Mikovits, describing a secret plot by global elites like Bill Gates and Dr. Anthony Fauci to use the pandemic to profit and seize political power. Mikovits soon became a regular guest on far-right media channels, and she became the darling of far-right publications likeThe Epoch Times andGateway Pundit.
In Deutschland existiert eine Vielzahl an alternativen Nachrichten-Plattformen von Rechtsaußen. Der Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019 nennt Junge Freiheit, Compact online, PI News und Epoch Times als Plattformen mit der häufigsten Nutzung (Newman 2019: 86).[In Germany there is a large number of alternative news platforms from the far-right. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019 names Junge Freiheit, Compact online, PI News and Epoch Times as the platforms with the most frequent use (Newman 2019: 86).]
Bannon also collaborated with the far-rightEpoch Times newspaper, which is closely connected to the intensely anticommunist and pro-Trump Chinese Falun Gong cult, and produced a docudrama for a Falun Gong television platform.
Perhaps you have seen those annoying YouTube ads forThe Epoch Times. It's a U.S. based international newspaper that's owned by the Falun Gong religious movement, who also own the performing arts company, Shen Yun.The Epoch Times has discovered the profitability of promoting far-right politicians in Europe and the United States and they also advance anti-vaccination conspiracy theories on their YouTube channel.
Next to the video was a link to subscribe to The Epoch Times, a newspaper that is tied to Falun Gong
But its shift to the far-right actually started in Europe when in 2015 refugees from the Middle East migrated to EU countries. It was then that the German edition of Epoch Times started to enjoy a steep rise in web traffic, coinciding with its coverage of the anti-migrant group Pegida and frequent interviews with politicians from the emerging right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
Many of the conspiracy theories produced by publications linked toEpoch Times have nothing to do with China at all but rather with QAnon, fake claims of voter fraud in the United States, and other issues.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)Facebook's data on the first quarter of this year shows that one of its most popular pages was an article byThe Epoch Times, a far-right newspaper that has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories and misleading claims of voter fraud related to the 2020 US election.
she got her news from the far-right One America News Network andEpoch Times, a pro-Trump newspaper produced by the Falun Gong sect that has spread the anti-Semitic QAnon conspiracy.
The Epoch Times, a far-right newspaper that echoes anti-vaccine messages and promoted former President Trump's false election claims, received 44.2 million views between April and June for a page that offers to sign up subscribers, according to a report released by Facebook last week.
The photographer, identified by other photojournalists as Samira Bouaou, passed the purple-colored folder to Trump as he was walking out of the East Room on Sept. 12 after delivering remarks at a reception for the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
In 2021 June, one of the most-viewed sites on Facebook was a subscription page for the Epoch Times, a far-right newspaper known for climate denial.
New filings by Jan. 6 defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, also show MPD bicycle officers stopping four armed men in plainclothes on Jan. 6. The men turned out to be federal agents. Video included with Pope's filings also shows uniformed MPD officers saying, 'We were set up [to fail on Jan. 6].'
...theEpoch Times – a globally circulated pro-Falun Gong, anti-Communist Chinese-language newspaper...
In related vein, another paper with wide distribution but published elsewhere isThe Epoch Times (Dajiyuan shibao), the qigong meditation religious group Falun gong mouth-piece, which runs a strong anti-communist line.
... theEpoch Times, an anticommunist newspaper connected with Falun Gong organization...
An article in the anti-Communist, Falun GongEpoch Times claims, without citing any sources, that [Commumist soldier Zhang Side's] death was the result of an accident involving opium use.
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