Recognizing the Epoch Times

Floor Speech

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Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, when John Tang was earning his doctoral degree in physics at Georgia Tech in 1999, he never imagined that some 20 years later he would be heading the fourth largest American newspaper by subscription count.

At the time, the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, had just started persecuting the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, practiced at the time by roughly 1 in every 12 Chinese. People would practice the slow-moving exercises in the morning in parks before going to work.

Just like any other persecution campaign by the CCP, the regime relied on the media it controlled, both the state media and the private media, to demonize and isolate the group. In an attempt to demonize Falun Gong and justify its persecution, the media played nonstop hate propaganda attacking this peaceful meditation group.

John, who had immigrated to the United States, watched from afar in horror as friends were persecuted for their beliefs.

John decided to take action. Despite having no experience or investment, he started Dajiyuan, the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times, in the basement of his home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.

John was driven by a wish to provide uncensored information to not only people in China but to people around the world. Soon, other Chinese Americans left their well-paying jobs to help John with this seemingly impossible endeavor.

The Epoch Times' first reporting group was established in China in the year 2000, covering key events with a main focus on the CCP's human rights abuses. The CCP, however, sees any kind of independent reporting on its brutal human rights abuses as a threat. Within a few months, Chinese police raided the underground newsroom, arresting every reporter and every editor. They were imprisoned, specifically Zhang Yuhui and Shi Shaoping, who received sentences of 10 years where they faced frequent torture.

The Epoch Times' China operation went underground, yet the Chinese edition quickly became a leading website on Chinese current events with millions of readers. Its print newspaper is now distributed nationwide as well as in 30 other countries around the world. Every day, many Chinese break through the CCP's internet firewall to read The Epoch Times' website.

All of this has not been easy. Since the newspaper's founding, the CCP has waged a nonstop campaign to totally destroy it. The party has threatened the newspaper's advertisers, they have launched incessant cyberattacks on its website and IT systems, and threatened relatives of staff members back in China.

The harassment has not been limited just to China. In 2006, the home of then-chief engineer Peter Li was broken into by assailants, who tied him to a chair and beat him before stealing two computers.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong in 2019, assailants started a fire in the newspaper's printing press, and in 2021, armed men entered the building and used sledgehammers to smash printing equipment.

The Epoch Times also inspired the Tuidang, which means ``Quit the CCP'' movement. As a result of The Epoch Times' publication of this special series ``Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,'' which provides the most thorough interview to date of the true nature of the CCP, more than 410 million Chinese people, and counting, have sought to sever their membership in this party and its affiliated organizations.

Realizing that the CCP had put enormous efforts into infiltrating the United States of America, especially media organizations, resulting in many U.S. media carrying the communist regime's propaganda, The Epoch Times launched in English in 2003 and started a print edition in New York in 2004.

The Epoch Times' independent reporting has attracted a large readership in the United States, now ranking as the fourth largest newspaper in the country by subscriber count. Its website is read by tens of millions of people each month.

Just like its Chinese companion, The Epoch Times prides itself on being independent and serving the interests of the readers. Under its slogan ``Truth and Tradition,'' The Epoch Times adheres to the best practices and highest principles of journalism and seeks to highlight the best of humanity.

The Epoch Times now has editions published in 36 countries and in 22 different languages.

This is all about one word: Freedom.

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