TORONTO—Two decades ago, the ruling communist party in China began to quietly exert a powerful influence over Chinese-language media abroad, including here in North America.
It began in earnest during the lead up to the British handover of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997. Thousands had left the bustling island city for Canada and other countries, seeking the surety of freedom they’d grown accustomed to under the British. At the same time, a wave of Chinese immigrants began to go abroad, and Beijing saw the risk posed when large numbers of overseas Chinese with connections to the mainland became exposed to press that might be less kind to the communist regime.
This made Hong Kong-based Chinese newspapers like Ming Pao and Sing Tao targets for influence, explained Mei Duzhe in a 2001 report by the Washington, D.C.-based Jamestown Foundation titled “How China’s Government Is Attempting to Control Chinese Media in America.”
A combination of political and financial favours had won over the largest newspapers and shifted their coverage in a distinctly pro-Beijing direction, Mei said. By 2001, the influence was pervasive, and Chinese newspapers abroad regularly parroted the communist party line on sensitive issues like democracy, Tibet, and the regime itself.
“The dominant Chinese media vehicle in America is the newspaper,” Mei wrote. “Four major Chinese newspapers are found in the U.S.—World Journal, Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao Daily News, and The China Press.” (The first three are also distributed in Canada.)
“Of these four, three are either directly or indirectly controlled by the government of Mainland China, while the fourth (run out of Taiwan) has recently begun bowing to pressure from the Beijing government.”
It was in this environment of narrowing viewpoints that The Epoch Times came into being, first as a Chinese-language newspaper in the U.S., and then Canada. Founded by Chinese-Americans with a commitment to reporting important stories censored by the official and pro-Beijing press, the newspaper’s impact was quickly felt.
