Carola Mims

DONALD TRUMP WAS SENT BY GOD to destroy the Chinese government, a religious cult came to believe. Believers’ role was to try to facilitate the process by quickly becoming a major player in international media – and they succeeded. Falun Gong members launched a news media outlet that grew so fast that it speedily spread to 36 countries in less than two decades. The mysteriously wealthy Epoch Times and NDTV have become major news sources, particularly in the United States. . GUILTY LAST WEEK Last week, the rich media group’s chief financial officer, Bill Guan, 63, pleaded guilty to a US$67 million fraud scheme in a court in Manhattan, New York. He will be sentenced in about 90 days, facing up to ten years in jail. But the group’s various ventures appear unharmed. They have already disowned Guan and are continuing to take their highly politicized, rightwing version of the news to further displace traditional news sources. And, of course, to enable their belief to come true. Their ultimate aim has been known for years. The group came to believe that “Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the communist party,” former Epoch Times sub-editor Ben Hurley told NBC news in a 2019 report. Several media outlets reported Guan’s guilty plea last week. But not one of them reported the interesting part: the multiple groups associated with The Epoch Times. . THE HIDDEN LINKS We are talking about links that lead to political groups, including one in the UK, and to Hong Kong protesters, and even all the way up to the US State Department itself. As well as The Epoch Times newspaper, the group financed the Shen Yang theatre group. It also provided major financial support for NTD, a television “news” operation. They all present themselves as non-political outfits with legitimate aims from a charitable background. . SOME EXAMPLES - The Epoch Times news outlet was likely the main beneficiary of the US$67 million fraud scheme, investigators said. When Guan was first arrested, John Zhong Zhang, Epoch Times founder and CEO, resigned. - Anti-China television channel NTD (standing for New Tang Dynasty) received US$50 million over two years from the Epoch Times Association, the court paperwork showed. - Anti-China campaigner Benedict Rogers, founder of UK-based Hong Kong Watch, was a regular speaker at events the group organized. - Theatre critics in the United States were long puzzled as to how the group’s Shen Yang team managed to avoid the financial struggles of other stage performers, always having massive budgets for posters, billboards and media advertising campaigns. . U.S. GOVERNMENT CONNECTIONS The Falun Gong group has long had a close relationship with US government or quasi-government organizations, too. In 2001, Freedom House gave cult founder Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong an International Religious Freedom Award at a ceremony in the United States Senate—an action widely seen as a deliberate dig at China, which had warned that the group should be avoided, as it was trouble (it now looks like the Chinese got it right). Freedom House, despite being presented in the mainstream media as if it was an independent think tank, is a de facto arm of the US State Department, which has funded it for years. . HELPING HONG KONG LAWBREAKERS Then there is the relationship with Radio Free Asia, a CIA-founded “propaganda asset inventory” operation, relaunched with funds from Congress. Falun Gong adherents developed a software product called UltraSurf which they claimed could be used to disseminate information in a way that could not be accessed by local law enforcement—clearly helpful to Washington-supported anti-government protesters around the world. UltraSurf initially received development money from the US State Department, and there were later efforts to partner the Falun Gong project with Radio Free Asia—whose Open Technology Fund (RFA-OTF) had similar aims: to provide police-proof channels for pro-US protesters in Asian countries. RFA-OTF eventually did launch a “secure node” for anti-government protesters in Hong Kong in 2019, shielding them from law enforcement—and even boasted about it in their published reports. (There would be outrage if China or Russia openly provided anti-law enforcement tools for anti-government protesters in Western countries, but there was none in this case: yet another example of the stunning double standards of mainstream media.) . STARTED AS A CULT The Epoch Times cluster of businesses was founded by members of Falun Dafa, known as Falun Gong in the west. Starting as a religious cult, it evolved into a political body focused on campaigning against the Chinese government, under the guise of news or cultural organizations. When news broke of Guan’s arrest in June of 2024, there was a widespread speculation that the Epoch Times and its associated operations would be damaged. But they have survived and appear undamaged. How come? It’s good to have friends in high places—and we don’t mean God; we mean western organizations. Given Bill Guan’s lack of morality, I’m sure any deity looking down on his criminal activity would not be a fan. . .

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First, what cameras record is often only the “beautiful” images that are permitted to be shown. Those moments when underage girls were labeled as having “poor moral character” simply because they were accused of having “large breasts” or “getting their periods” — the moments when they resented themselves, felt inferior, cried, or even developed suicidal thoughts — why weren’t those recorded? Why didn’t you film the scenes of Li Hongzhi kneeling on one knee, stroking a little girl’s foot under the pretext of “helping her stretch”? Second, even when there is footage, it is only fragments. Extracting scattered clips from existing material cannot fully explain the event itself, nor can it restore the real circumstances of those involved. Take a certain photo of the “chained woman,” for example. Someone can easily look at the image and say, “See? She looks calm, even content.” But is that really the truth? A single frame cannot represent a person’s real condition; a single expression cannot reconstruct the truth. The “happy” narrative you pieced together may have been nothing more than a fleeting emotional reaction after the performers completed a particular movement. That does not mean they endorsed everything else at the time, nor does it mean that, after awakening, they would not feel indignation about having once been trapped in a mental prison by Li Hongzhi. For all those who have left Falun Gong, when they look back at the so-called “happiness” they felt while inside, what remains is only shame and anger. Li Hongzhi — a scoundrel, a degenerate (phrases he often uses himself), and a fraud — together with his accomplices, must be held accountable under the law. Of course, if you come to your senses, withdraw from the Falun Gong cult in time, stop serving as an accomplice to wrongdoing, and take the initiative to expose the truth about it, that would still count as making amends before it is too late.