“The Epoch Times”, Falun Gong, and Me

A few weeks go I was approached by an Editor working for a newspaper based in New York city called The Epoch Times, who said he had been following my work, and asked me to write Op-Ed columns for his newspaper.

I had never heard of The Epoch Times, and so a little research was in order. This is a newspaper that publishes in 35 countries, in 23 languages, and boasts a subscription base (unaudited) of 1.3 million readers! Not small potatoes, as the saying goes.

You can read their statement about themselves here:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/about-us

The short story is that this newspaper was created at the beginning of this century by John Tang and a small group of Chinese businessmen who enjoy a practice known as Falun Gong. This was developed in 1992 and is a kind of exercise + meditation you can read about here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong

Falun Gong soon grew very popular, attracting about 70 million practitioners, and so was as soon persecuted by a worried Chinese Communist government. Communism is rooted in a purely materialist philosophy that denies all spiritual realities, and so Falun Gong was correctly seen as a threat to Communist ideology, simply by its existence.

Accordingly, this newspaper was organized primarily as an anti-communist/anti-totalitarian voice, but as you will see from their statement, and from their slogan “Truth and Tradition”, they consider themselves to be mainly an organization promoting truthful non-aligned journalism.

You can see one of my first two columns here:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/libertarian-socialism-how-modern-democracy-overcame-its-own-contradiction_2686279.html

This is going to be an interesting experience, and who knows where it will lead?

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. killbill

    howdy, wonder how do you feel about Epoch times now, after the NBC news piece and the whole pro-trump fiasco?

  2. togusa

    It seems that those religious nuts have brain-washed you as well. Congratulations on joining the world of fake news. Have fun crafting laughable reports.

  3. Parpen

    Keep up the good work William Gairdner, I read your book “The French Traveler” via inter library loan and purchased a copy for my private library. Brainwashed funny term by an indoctrinated bobble head speaking from others and not for self. Keep writing and speaking.

Leave a Reply

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.