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Epoch Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
The Leverage Against China That the US Hasn't Used Yet
News Analysis The United States and China are locked in a war, experts are saying. It's not a war of bullets, but rather an 'unrestricted war' in almost every other strategic domain, including the economy, cyberspace, culture, and information. In many ways, the information war is key. It determines what people know, which then sets what they think. That, in turn, determines their actions in all other areas of the conflict. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wages its information war on many levels, from seeding grand overarching narratives to tarring individual critics. In some areas, however, the regime lacks a counterargument. Some of its actions are so gruesome, the only option is to suppress the information, experts say. It's exactly these areas where the United States could mount severe, potentially fatal pressure on the regime—if willing to pursue them, several China experts told The Epoch Times. 'The darkest crime they're doing right now is organ harvesting,' said Sean Lin, former U.S. Army microbiologist and Epoch Times contributor. He is also a member of the independent group, Committee on the Present Danger: China. 'Maybe there are even darker crimes, more vicious, darker than organ harvesting. We don't know. And so the CCP is very afraid of this being further exposed, further recognized by the international community,' he added. The fact that the CCP was killing prisoners of conscience for their organs was first reported in 2006 by The Epoch Times based on whistleblower testimony. Since then, evidence of the crime has snowballed, resulting in an independent tribunal in the United Kingdom Related Stories 5/22/2025 5/14/2025 Still, to this day, no government has published the results of a formal investigation into the issue. 'Western governments did not take all this information seriously. They were still wishfully thinking that if we bring economic freedom to China, then eventually China will change its political system,' said Nan Su, a China commentator and senior editor with the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times. Three factors have changed that situation, he said. The COVID-19 pandemic showed China as irresponsible and malicious, blocking critical information that would have aided other countries in facing the disease. The undercutting of Hong Kong's independence in 2022 showed that China wouldn't honor its promise to preserve the island's separate political and legal system for 50 years. And finally, the CCP's support for Russia in the Ukraine war shows China siding with adversaries of the United States and Europe. In recent years, Congress passed several resolutions condemning forced organ harvesting in China, but 'none of them really had teeth,' Nan said. 'If the U.S. government was to really take this issue seriously, invest time and money into the investigation, that's something Beijing's leaders have always been afraid of happening.' The issue is, in fact, a 'key point' in the international confrontation with China as it allows the West to hold the CCP's feet to the fire, said Heng He, an expert on Chinese politics and Epoch Times contributor. (L-R) Robert Destro, former assistant secretary of state for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Cheng Peiming, a Falun Gong practitioner who had his organs forcibly removed in China, and Dr. Charles Lee, forced organ investigator, speak during a press conference in Washington on Aug. 9, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times For issues such as unfair trade practices and military expansion, the CCP can just ignore the criticism. Even if the CCP invaded Taiwan or started a war with the Philippines, 'somebody can still defend China, find excuses for China,' he said. 'But for organ harvesting, nobody can,' he added. Rarely is there a matter so clear-cut as to allow one side to assume the unequivocal moral high ground, the experts suggested. 'The issue is whether the U.S. government has a strong will to do it, to expose it, to take action,' Lin said. 'The CCP now realizes that they are at a critical junction … because the current Trump administration has one of the strongest teams, you can say the most hawkish team against the CCP,' he added. The wheels are already in motion; last month the House The CCP is well aware of the historical precedent of the Holocaust, Lin noted. 'The CCP is really worried that their persecution of Falun Gong will become something like that,' he said. Shoot the Messenger Unable to explain the organ harvesting issue away, the CCP is trying to suppress the information by discrediting its victims, the experts said. As The Epoch Times previously 'They want to take down Falun Gong's reputation in the United States so the U.S. government would hesitate to collaborate with the Falun Gong group to expose CCP crimes,' Lin said. The CCP sees this issue as particularly urgent because it strikes at its constant source of insecurity—a lack of legitimacy, Heng He said. Dr. Sean Lin, former lab director of the viral disease branch at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. (Courtesy of The Epoch Times In the past, Chinese dynasties drew legitimacy from a divine mandate. In modern times, legitimacy usually stems from elections, said Heng. However, the CCP rejects both. With its revolutionary promises depleted after Mao Zedong's catastrophic Cultural Revolution in the '60s and '70s, the Party now uses economic growth as a source of pseudo-legitimacy. With the Chinese economy teetering from a massive real estate crash, insolvency in its off-the-books local government financing vehicles, a lack of foreign investment, and the trade war with the United States, the CCP is already facing significant challenges. Thorough exposure of its crimes could very well push the regime over the edge, Lin suggested. 'Even though the Chinese economy has a hard landing and crashes, as long as the CCP leadership is there, they may try to survive this harsh time. And the critical issue is that they still need to be somewhat legitimate to the world, to the Chinese people,' Lin said. 'If their crime against innocent Falun Gong practitioners inside China is fully exposed, nobody can accept such a government, and the CCP may even be disintegrated from inside.'
Epoch Times
20-05-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
China Residents Report New Wave of COVID-19 as Infection Rates Double
China's official COVID-19 infection rates doubled in April, according to the latest report from the communist regime's health authorities. Meanwhile, since early May, Chinese citizens across the country have been reporting a new wave of respiratory infections, causing hospitals to become overcrowded again. Experts who spoke with the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times suspect the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to cover up and downplay the true scale of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, noting that Hong Kong and Taiwan have reported an increase in infections in recent weeks. The May 8 report published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) acknowledged that the COVID-19 positive rate in China—excluding Hong Kong and Macau—had jumped from 7.5 percent in the first week of April to 16.2 percent from April 28 to May 4. The China CDC's report said that the main pathogens detected in respiratory samples of patients with influenza-like symptoms in outpatient and emergency departments of sentinel hospitals were SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, rhinovirus, and human parainfluenza virus. Beijing's Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a notice on May 12, attributing the rising COVID-19 infections in the region to the NB.1 strain, a descendant of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron recombinant lineage XDV, which is closely related to the JN.1 subvariant, itself a descendant of BA.2.86. XDV-related recombinant variant XBB caused a massive outbreak of COVID-19 in China from late 2022 to 2023, according to the health agency. Related Stories 3/13/2025 3/10/2025 As of May 19, the COVID-19 infection report on the China CDC 'China's CDC has not reported the rate of severe cases, hospitalization rate, or mortality rate. Therefore, the outside world cannot know the actual situation,' Sean Lin, assistant professor at the Biomedical Science Department of Feitian College and former U.S. Army microbiologist, told The Epoch Times on May 17. 'The number of infections in mainland China has certainly increased recently, but Beijing doesn't even report the actual number of infections, only the positive rate, which is misleading the public,' Lin said. 'There are three to four types of multiple overlapping infections of respiratory viruses in patients,' Lin said. 'This is more than just COVID-19 infections.' He suspects that the Chinese regime is using COVID-19 infections in the latest report to cover up 'a more serious situation of this more invasive multi-infection.' 'The Chinese regime hasn't told the public about the severity of the situation,' Lin said. Dr. Jonathan Liu, director of Liu's Wisdom Healing Centre, has a similar assessment. 'This wave of respiratory infection in mainland China is mainly caused by COVID-19, but it's combined with other viruses,' he told The Epoch Times on May 17. Many Due to the CCP's history of covering up information and publishing unreliable data, including the underreporting of COVID-19 infections and related deaths since early 2020, accounts from residents can offer valuable information for understanding the situation on the ground in this totalitarian country. Chinese residents told The Epoch Times that many people around them have been infected with COVID-19 or experienced COVID-like symptoms since the holiday. People wait at an outpatient area of the respiratory department of a hospital in Beijing on Jan. 8, 2025. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images 'I was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the hospital, and they had to report it. I suspected I was infected when I went to the emergency room,' said Xu Ling, a resident in Chaoyang District in Beijing who used a pseudonym due to fear of retaliation from the authorities. 'I am almost fully recovered, but it has taken a long time. I took cefuroxime,' Xu said, referring to an antibiotic that he said is used as 'special medicine for COVID-19' in China, a claim that the publication couldn't independently verify. A young parent from Zibo city in China's eastern Shandong Province, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, said he contracted the virus during the May Day holiday while visiting another city. 'Our whole family tested positive for COVID-19,' he said, although his symptoms were milder than the first time he got infected. 'I tried to tough it out for a few days, but I couldn't,' he said. 'I'm still coughing, so I think it's mild pneumonia.' Xiao Qiang, who used a pseudonym for safety concerns, said that 'a lot of people have caught colds recently.' Most of my relatives and friends have had fevers,' said the resident from Baoji city in China's northwest Shaanxi Province. 'It seems that the symptoms are the same as those of previous waves of COVID-19,' he said. 'If you see a doctor, the doctor will only say you have a cold.' Liu said the increase in COVID-19 infections since the May Day holiday is related to many people traveling. 'Many mainland Chinese people traveled to Hong Kong, and Hong Kong residents visited mainland China, so the number of infections has increased,' he said. Infections Rise in Hong Kong and Taiwan Hong Kong health authorities, independent from mainland China's, The COVID-19 positive rate of respiratory samples and the viral content in sewage in Hong Kong have surpassed the highest levels recorded a year ago. Contaminated wastewater can be a significant source of viruses. Liu said that the data in Hong Kong is relatively more realistic than the data from the mainland. 'The numbers released by China's CDC are actually too low. For example, they reported only seven deaths in March, which is unlikely, according to the normal epidemic rate,' he said. He compared these deaths with those 'Canada reported 1,915 COVID-19 deaths in 8.5 months, so the average number of deaths per month is more than 225,' he said, pointing out that the nation has 'a large land area and very low population density, and relatively good sanitary conditions.' 'How could there be only seven deaths in a month in mainland China? It's hard to believe it,' he said. COVID-19 infections in Taiwan have also significantly increased around the same time, according to reports by the island's health authorities. Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control on May 16 'COVID-19 infections in Taiwan may peak in June,' said Dr. Huang Chian-Feng from the Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at National Taiwan University. 'Analysis of the virus strains has shown that they mainly came from Hong Kong and mainland China,' he told The Epoch Times on May 17. Huang said that symptoms are 'easy to ignore' because some symptoms are atypical and non-respiratory, 'including those related to the gastrointestinal tract, such as stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting.' Luo Ya, Ning Haizhong, and Hong Ning contributed to this report.
Epoch Times
27-04-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
China's CDC Releases March Data on Multiple Viruses Spreading in the Country, Sparking Skepticism
China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) has released its official data for March on COVID-19, influenza, and other respiratory viruses spreading in China, which has sparked some skeptical reactions from experts. Mainland Chinese citizens suspect that the authorities are continuing to cover up the truth about respiratory disease epidemics in China, as official data continue to not match their lived experience. In its report on the national COVID-19 epidemic situation for March, released on April 21, the China CDC The latest China CDC weekly update on 'National sentinel surveillance of acute respiratory infectious diseases' was for the week of March 24 to March 30, and was issued on April 3. The CDC said in the weekly report that it collected respiratory samples from outpatient influenza-like cases and hospitalized severe acute respiratory infection cases in sentinel hospitals across the country, excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The test results showed that the main pathogens detected in outpatient respiratory samples were rhinovirus, COVID-19, and human metapneumovirus; the main pathogens detected positively in respiratory samples of hospitalized severe acute respiratory infection cases were respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus, and human metapneumovirus. 'This is a very vague and simple statistical report,' Sean Lin, assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College and former U.S. army microbiologist, told The Epoch Times on April 25, as the report 'did not provide the specific number of cases or samples tested.' Related Stories 2/26/2025 2/24/2025 Lin noted that the reporting did not include human infections of avian influenza (bird flu). In early March, the Chinese regime admitted 'sporadic' The Epoch Times also reported that the China CDC reported 127 cases of infection with the mutated strain of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in March, which is more contagious, in an internal document that was Lin said that he believes that the omission of human infections of avian influenza from the latest report is because the regime is restricting the release of information about bird flu, especially H5N1, as it may already be spreading among humans and be one of the main causes of ongoing serious respiratory infections in China. The China CDC said that 'no influenza-like illness outbreaks were reported nationwide' in its latest China Influenza Surveillance Weekly Report issued on April 17, covering the period from April 7 to April 13. The official report said the main pathogen causing respiratory infections across China is the influenza A viral strain subtype A(H1N1)pdm09. 'Since October 1, 2024, drug resistance monitoring has shown that 83 A(H1N1)pdm09 subtype influenza strains have reduced or highly reduced sensitivity to neuraminidase inhibitors,' the report stated. Lin said this is worth noting, even though the CCP is being deliberately vague about it. 'What is the percentage of this 'highly reduced sensitivity'? Can it be interpreted as a 'highly drug-resistant' virus strain? That is to say, Tamiflu (a neuraminidase inhibitor) commonly used on the market to treat influenza viral infections may be completely ineffective against such virus strains. This is very important information but the weekly influenza report glossed over it,' he said. Official Data Different From Experience Because of the CCP's record of publishing unreliable data, including its underreporting of COVID-19 infections and related deaths since early 2020, anecdotal accounts by residents provide helpful supplementary information for understanding the situation on the ground in the totalitarian country. A Shanghai-based online writer, who didn't give his name for safety concerns, told The Epoch Times in recent days, 'This time, the outbreak in Shanghai gives me a different feeling than the [2020–2022] COVID-19 outbreak. The people infected now are mainly children, and there are also elderly people, but not many. There have also been sudden deaths of young people in their 30s and 40s in the north, but this is rare in Shanghai.' The Shanghai resident also said, 'I went to Kunming [in southwestern China] last year and traveled to Tun Village. I had diarrhea at the time, and the COVID-19 nucleic acid test result showed that I was infected with COVID-19. However, the doctor said that the regulations did not allow them to write COVID-19 as the diagnosis, so they wrote gastroenteritis instead.' The symptoms of common influenza B, influenza A, COVID-19, or norovirus, are very similar, so there are more cases in ongoing viral infections in China, Dr. Jonathan Liu, a professor at Canada Public College and director of Liu's Wisdom Healing Centre, told The Epoch Times on April 26. He said that the reason why the Chinese regime is downplaying the current epidemic is due to certain considerations, 'which is to show that COVID-19 is under control in China, so as not to affect foreign investment and avoid causing panic among the people. It does this to maintain the regime's stability.' Meanwhile, Chinese residents across the country continue to report an increasing number of sudden deaths and overcrowded hospitals. A family member (2nd L) holds an IV drip for a child (L) receiving care at the pediatric department of a hospital in Hangzhou, eastern China's Zhejiang province, on Jan. 6, 2025. AFP/China Mr. An, a resident in the megacity of Shenzhen in southern China who didn't give his full name for safety concerns, told The Epoch Times in recent days, 'There are many sudden deaths now of people of all ages but more are young people. I have seen quite a few young people in their twenties or thirties who were not sick or had no symptoms suddenly collapse. I saw people collapse while walking on the street.' Mr. Zhang, a resident of Nanyang city in Henan Province in northern China who didn't give his full name for safety concerns, told The Epoch Times in recent days, 'Our funeral homes are quite busy, and the hospitals are very busy.' He continued, 'I went to the hospital to visit a relative of mine who was hospitalized a few days ago. When I arrived at the hospital, the corridors were full of beds, including areas by the elevator doors. There was really no place to put more beds, especially in the cardiovascular and respiratory wards.' Mr. Yuan, a resident of Fuyang city in Anhui Province in East China who didn't give his full name for safety concerns, told The Epoch Times in recent days, 'Many people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s died suddenly. Funeral homes and hospitals are full. Some diseased were buried after cremation, and some were just buried secretly. All the burial spaces in cemeteries have been sold out.' A large amount of video footage shot by Chinese residents has emerged on social media in recent months showing many Luo Ya and Li Jing contributed to this report.
