The Epoch Times Holds Out in Hong Kong

The Epoch Times is seen at a newspaper stall in Hong Kong on Dec.19, 2023. (Adrian Yu/The Epoch Times)

The Epoch Times holds out amid the shrinking press freedom in Hong Kong, which used to be known as the “paradise of banned books in China.”

While the media environment in Hong Kong is deteriorating, Epoch Times newspapers are still available at 116 newspaper stalls throughout the city. Its monthly magazine New Epoch Weekly is also sold at some stalls.

With “Truth and Tradition” as its principle, The Epoch Times has been covering real news from all over the world, including the anti-extradition law campaign in Hong Kong, the COVID-19 pandemic, and U.S. elections.

Promotional samples of The Epoch Times are distributed free of charge by volunteers every week. Readers can also subscribe to the media’s e-newsletters.

Seeing Epoch Times, Chinese Have ‘Beaming Eyes’

Miss Zhang, a staff member of The Epoch Times’ distribution department, joined the team after reading the publication’s editorial series “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.”

The series, published in November 2004, exposes in detail the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and triggered a wave of quitting the Party. The number of people who have since quit the CCP and its related organizations has exceeded 425 million, and the number continues to grow.

“[The Epoch Times] is very important. The Chinese people should all know about this righteous media,” Miss Zhang said, adding that some tourists from China “had beaming eyes” upon seeing The Epoch Times and found it a novelty.

Hong Kong’s Banned Books a ‘Total Wipeout’

The publishers’ situation in Hong Kong can be called a “total wipeout,” with all political magazines shut down and many independent bookstores closing after the National Security Law passed in 2020, said Choi Yung Mei, the former editor of Open Magazine.

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“The free publishing industry is probably the hardest hit among all media,” she told The Epoch Times in 2021.

According to a Hong Kong pastor who chose to be anonymous, it was already “impossible” for Hong Kong to freely publish banned political books as it was in the past, as publishers will self-censor to avoid violating the National Security Law.

The banned books, as defined by the CCP, refer to those with content related to the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre, Hong Kong protests, the persecution of ethnic minorities and faith groups such as Falun Gong, as well as the private lives, overseas assets, and the internal power struggles of CCP officials.

The Epoch Times in CCP Officials’ Families

In June 2023, Zhang Guilin, a former state assets supervisory official, was expelled from office and the CCP for “serious disciplinary offenses.” Mr. Zhang was notified of a charge of “possessing and reading books and journals with serious political issues,” which was at the top of all his charges.

Yang Zhu (a pseudonym), the child of an official in Beijing, said that many CCP officials now read books and magazines with so-called serious political issues.

“We have a lot of them at home,” he told the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times on June 28, 2023. “I know a few underground book publishers here in Beijing. They can get even New Epoch Weekly and The Epoch Times here. Unpacking and getting them here. [They] have special channels for them.”

Newspapers of the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times come out of the printing press as the outlet resumes print after an attack on the printing facility on April 12, 2021. (The Epoch Times)

According to Mr. Yang, what caused Mr. Zhang to be removed from his position were books published in Hong Kong by Bao Pu.

“I heard that even the New Epoch Weekly by The Epoch Times were also searched out at Zhang Guilin’s place,” he said.

Bao Pu, the son of Bao Tong, secretary to former CCP leader Zhao Ziyang, is the founder of Hong Kong’s New Century Press, which published many books on modern Chinese history and CCP politics, such as “Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang” and “The Secret Emotional life of Zhou Enlai.”

Publications in Hong Kong used to be senior CCP members’ prime targets for leaks. Over the years, Hong Kong publishers have found a ready market among mainland Chinese readers, many of whom secretly bring books back from Hong Kong. However, after the Causeway Bay bookstore incident in 2015, publishers in the former British colony became more fearful of printing “sensitive” books.

Journalist in Exile: Truth the Precondition of Choosing

Zhao Lanjian, a veteran Chinese journalist now living in the United States, said that access to information and the truth is the first condition for any person to make a choice.

CCP officials know this all too well. The banned books have actually become the truth from another perspective, and even a tool to save lives for many officials, he told The Epoch Times in June 2023.

Mr. Zhao recalled that in 1992, he saw many banned books in the home of a classmate whose parents were officials in Tonghua City, Jilin Province.

“It was the banned political books in Hong Kong and Taiwan that were popular in those days. The three children of the family were all sent to Germany for study later. [They] never returned. This is the driving force behind banned books,” he said.

Zhao Lanjian, a veteran Chinese journalist who exposed the authorities' false claim regarding the identity of Xuzhou's chained woman, is now in exile in the United States. (Supplied)

Sheng Xue, a Canada-based writer, said that while the CCP has become more and more strict in blocking information, “humans have the natural instinct to seek knowledge and the truth.”

“Therefore, in the past few years, the main market for many books on Chinese politics published in Hong Kong and Taiwan was precisely those who came out of China, including some travelers. Having left the country, [they] naturally hoped to see more truth about China,” she told The Epoch Times in 2020.

Epoch Times Publisher: Reporting Truth Under Pressure

Under the suppression of the communist regime, the 20-year journey of The Epoch Times has been full of difficulties and trials. In addition to not being able to find a printing house and rented office space, The Epoch Times’ staff were followed and attacked, clients were threatened and harassed, and printing facilities were violently damaged.

“We have stood firm for nearly 20 years without giving up, in order to spread the truth and international concern for the people of China,” Guo Jun, the Hong Kong bureau chief of The Epoch Times, said in a 2019 interview.

“The danger of communism to the world, the harm that the CCP has done to the Chinese nation, the destruction of Chinese culture, these are all crucial issues. The Epoch Times has brought out this core issue in the midst of the chaos, which is of great help to every family and to the development of mankind. What we are doing is very meaningful.”

Guo Jun, one of the original co-founders of The Epoch Times and the head of the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times, in Maryland on April 14, 2021. (The Epoch Times)

In a recent interview, Ms. Guo pointed out that the CCP has been using economic means to achieve its political goals by pressurizing governments, consortia, and media around the world.

“In this unprecedented battle between good and evil, the CCP is trying to lower the moral standards of China and the world. However, when society’s morality is on the verge of collapse, the end of humanity will fall,” she said.

The publisher quoted Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi’s article “How Humankind Came to Be” published in January 2023, in which he said: “All of the madness now unfolding in the world was planned as such, for the final phase, by divine beings. Their goal was to test the lives here and see whether they were worthy of salvation.”

Ms. Guo said: “That’s why The Epoch Times has been persistently reporting the truth under such great pressure, hoping to help people recognize the CCP and stick to the bottom line of morality, so that they can understand the heavenly chances revealed, and thus be saved at this time.”