The Epoch Times recently published a print edition of a special edition on how Beijing’s coverup of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan led to the global pandemic with the front-page headline “How the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World.”
The special edition, which contains a collection of Epoch Times articles, is being distributed to select areas, as we believe it contains important information for people, as well as allows people to become familiar with our content and subscribe. Because of the good response to the special edition in the United States, it was then distributed by other local Epoch Times editions.
The Epoch Times started reporting on the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan on Dec. 31, 2019. In early February, we reported, based on internal documents we obtained from our network of sources in China, that the scale of transmission and the number of deaths were at least 10 times to 20 times more than the numbers officially published by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
While the CCP censors all information in the Chinese media, our reporting on the coronavirus has been a vital service to our readers. Some have told us that it allowed them early on to take the necessary precautions to protect their families.
The Epoch Times was founded in the United States in the year 2000 in response to communist repression and censorship in China. Our founders, Chinese-Americans who themselves had fled communism, sought to create an independent media to bring the world uncensored and truthful information. We are free from the influence of any government, corporation, or political party.
Our own staff members are very well aware of the nature of the communist regime. In the fall of 2000, all of our reporters and editors in China were arrested and sentenced, and to this day, our staff members in the West are unable to visit China and their families for fear of being detained and persecuted.
One question we typically get from other media is “some of the claims in the publication—namely that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is responsible for the worldwide coronavirus pandemic—could potentially encourage some residents to victimize people of East Asian origin.”
Our special edition is actually telling readers that this pandemic is not the fault of the Chinese people, but rather the fault of the Communist Party. The Chinese people have been victimized by the CCP’s handling of this pandemic. In differentiating the CCP from the Chinese people, we are truly standing up for the Chinese people, or Asian people generally.
It is actually the CCP and its propaganda that have intentionally conflated the Communist Party with China and its people, claiming that any criticism of its brutal regime is a criticism of the Chinese people. Media in the free world should not fall into the CCP’s trap and conflate its regime with the Chinese people.
The world is entering a new phase in terms of international relationships, with relations with China becoming tenser. This is not tension between Western people and Chinese people, nor between Western countries and China. This is a tension between the free world and a communist regime responsible for the deaths of an estimated 80 million people in its history.
Some reporters have asked us about the relationship between The Epoch Times and the spiritual discipline Falun Gong. The founders as well as some staff members are Falun Gong practitioners. But this is an issue of personal belief and is unrelated to our business. We run our company just like any other media company whose staff may be Christian, Jewish, or of any other belief.
