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Epoch Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Beijing's Global Propaganda Efforts Are ‘Warfare Without Bullets,' Former Chinese Professor Says
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging an intensified propaganda campaign beyond its borders to repress the spiritual group Falun Gong, according to Li Yuanhua, a former Chinese history professor now living in Australia. The regime's tactics include utilizing the legal and political systems of democracies to suppress the group, as well as injecting its propaganda and disinformation through Western media outlets in the hopes of influencing public perception, he said. 'This is warfare without bullets, aimed at the mind of every person in the free world,' Li told The Epoch Times. He described the CCP's transnational repression waged through media attacks as an 'ideological infiltration campaign.' Li said that the CCP has been infiltrating Western media for years and has learned how to use overseas media professionals to its advantage. Besides paid ads and op-eds, the CCP collects personal data on journalists to look for 'pressure points' it can exploit—things like personal weaknesses or family ties, he said. Li expressed concern that Western media professionals are being asked to apply their skills to package information on a topic that is heavily controlled in China, and giving the regime power to also control the narrative overseas, especially when the views of Falun Gong practitioners are not treated equally in media reporting. In recent months, The New York Times has published more than 10 articles attacking Falun Gong and Falun Gong-founded dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts, which is based in New York. The articles omit information that would have undermined the articles' premises, a review by The Epoch Times found. Media companies in other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, have also published negative rhetoric targeting Shen Yun. 'If an entire newsroom is complicit in this kind of behavior, the media becomes weaponized and is turned into a tool for manipulating public opinion, which will ultimately do serious damage to public trust and the integrity of information,' Li said. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body self improvement practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, along with five gentle exercises. The CCP first considered Falun Gong a benefit to society, as many practitioners improved their mental and physical condition. But the CCP soon viewed the popularity of the group as a threat to its control and atheist values and it began a nationwide campaign to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in 1999, with a stated policy of 'defaming their reputations, bankrupting them financially, and destroying them physically.' Then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin mobilized the whole state apparatus, including state-run media at home as well as foreign media, in an attempt to 'eradicate' Falun Gong within three months. In January 2001, the CCP staged a self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square under the direction of then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin and blamed it on Falun Gong practitioners; a finding reported by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in 2004. The hoax, aired nationally by CCTV on Jan. 31, 2001, became a key part of an intensified propaganda campaign to vilify Falun Gong and incite hatred in the Chinese populace against it. Jiang gave two high-profile interviews—one in writing to France's Le Figaro in October 1999, and another in person to CBS in August 2000—where he made negative remarks about Falun Gong. This marked the first time a top CCP leader had made public statements on Falun Gong to major international media, expanding Beijing's propaganda efforts to a global audience. The CCP continued to expand its global propaganda campaign, pulling together its intelligence apparatus and diplomatic resources to infiltrate Western media and academic institutions. The CCP's state-run English-language media, China Daily, paid more than $1 million in printing and advertisement expenses to nine U.S. media outlets from May 1 to Oct. 3, 2023. In return, the media companies printed its 'China Watch' supplement, helping spread CCP's narratives. Last year, then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent letters to the heads of the nine U.S. media companies, urging them to stop accepting money from, and cut ties with China Daily. The letters were sent to The Seattle Times, the Houston Chronicle, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Time, USA Today, the Financial Times, the Sun Sentinel, and the Chicago Tribune. China Daily has since been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a 'foreign mission' controlled by the CCP. In its 2022 report on Beijing's Global Media Influence, Freedom House, a U.S.-based nonpartisan organization, found that the CCP was 'using more sophisticated and coercive tactics to shape media narratives and suppress critical reporting.' The United States, United Kingdom, and Taiwan were among the countries that 'faced a very high degree of media influence efforts from Beijing' and 'displayed a very high level of resilience' according to the report. Australia was rated in the category of facing a 'high degree of media influence efforts from Beijing.' According to party insiders, in 2022, CCP leader Xi Jinping ordered an escalation of the suppression of Falun Gong groups overseas, deploying propaganda campaigns and legal warfare in a broader 'unrestricted warfare' strategy to target both Falun Gong and Shen Yun. CCP Focuses Attacks on Shen Yun For years, Shen Yun has been a thorn in the party's side, Li told The Epoch Times. This is because Shen Yun is getting people talking about the CCP's human rights abuses, and promoting religious freedom, he said. Shen Yun's tagline is 'China before communism.' He said the CCP has responded to this artistic expression by launching a coordinated smear campaign and legal challenges attacking Shen Yun. Shen Yun stated in August 2024 that Beijing had escalated its suppression efforts, citing a report by the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) that the regime is instructing agents to feed 'malicious' and 'negative' content about people who practice Falun Gong to Western media and social media influencers. The report said the CCP's aim is to breed public hostility toward Falun Gong in the hopes of prompting action from U.S. law enforcement. Whistleblowers in China provided meeting notes from June, in which provincial-level Ministry of Public Security officials—the CCP's top secret police—directed all provinces to 'fully support' two YouTubers producing anti-Falun Gong and anti-Shen Yun videos. The FDIC report states that in early August 2024, one of the YouTubers explicitly listed 'media like the New York Times' as one of three target 'battlefields' for discrediting Falun Gong and Shen Yun. Li urged democratic nations to stay vigilant or risk having their speech and core values manipulated by foreign totalitarian powers. In February, the State Department denounced the CCP's 'acts of intimidation' directed at Falun Gong and Shen Yun. In June, G7 leaders concluded their two-day summit in Canada. In one of their statements, leaders vowed to cooperate to counter the CCP's transnational repression, which it said 'often impacts dissidents, journalists, human rights defenders, religious minorities, and those identified as part of diaspora communities.' Li stressed that once the media becomes a tool of political infiltration, the victims aren't just a specific faith group—the free speech and values of the democratic world are at stake. 'Today they're targeting Shen Yun,' he warned, 'Tomorrow it could be a political party or public figure they don't like.'
Epoch Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Xi Calls on Young Chinese to ‘Serve' Rural Areas as Unemployment Crisis Persists Amid Tariff War
As China's ailing economy increasingly faces headwinds, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping has again called on young Chinese to look for work in the countryside. The CCP's official media reported on May 3, the eve of China's 'Youth Day,' that Xi sent a letter to a group of volunteer teachers at a remote boarding school in the Xinjiang region. Xi allegedly said that 'there have been more and more young people in recent years going to rural or border areas to serve.' He called on young people nationwide to 'go to where the motherland and the people need you most to shine and give your best.' Xi and Party authorities have repeatedly urged young Chinese to seek work in rural areas amid poor prospects for them in the general economy. In a letter to college students in 2023, Xi encouraged young people to go to the countryside, as the unemployment rate among Chinese urban youth aged 16 to 24 reached a historic high of 21.3 percent in June that year, with 11.58 million college graduates entering the job market. That same year, the Guangdong Provincial Communist Youth League Committee planned to organize 300,000 young people to move to the countryside over the following three years. The announcement evoked sensitive memories for many Chinese people. Related Stories 5/7/2025 5/5/2025 From 1968 to 1978, about 17 million Chinese college and high school students, known as the 'sent-down youth,' were forcibly sent to the countryside to be 're-educated by poor and lower-middle peasants.' Many of these students were the Red Guards, who were active at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. The Red Guards, comprising college and high school students, formed militant groups across the nation. Then-CCP leader Mao Zedong mobilized them to attack officials whom he deemed not revolutionary enough. Their mission also included eliminating all remnants of traditional Chinese culture and purging society of all supposedly bourgeois elements through violence from 1966 to 1968. In the process, they destroyed temples, artifacts, and historical buildings, and subjected officials, intellectuals, and others to beatings. After Mao regained full control of the regime from his political rivals within the CCP through the movement, the large number of Red Guards, having lost their usefulness, became a potential threat to the regime. That situation arose as schools had been closed during the Cultural Revolution, leaving them unemployed amid an economic recession and widespread poverty. Consequently, Mao forcefully relocated them to the countryside and remote areas. Young Red Guards brandish copies of Chairman Mao's 'Little Red Book' in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution in 1966. The Red Guards rampaged through Chinese towns, terrorizing people, particularly the elderly. Jean Vincent/AFP via Getty Images This year, the number of college graduates is anticipated to reach 12.22 million, setting a new record, while China's college graduates Orders Drop, Jobs at Risk As the United States has imposed hefty new tariffs on China, many Chinese export-oriented companies have seen a sharp drop in orders, leading to factories suspending production. Tens of millions of jobs could be lost in China if the tariffs are not soon reduced significantly, putting more pressure on an already bleak job market. With a record number of college students graduating this summer, analysts have said that Xi's push for young people to go to rural areas for work is for the communist regime's political stability and to cover up the persisting unemployment difficulties in cities. Sheng Xue, a Chinese Canadian writer and activist, told The Epoch Times on May 4 that the CCP sees a large number of unemployed young people in the cities as a potential threat to its regime. 'Xi Jinping's advocacy of young people going to the countryside for work is essentially using the methods of the Mao Zedong era to solve the current political and economic crisis,' she said. Sheng said that besides covering up the unemployment crisis in cities, the authorities are trying to maintain the regime's stability by pushing young people to the countryside to 'disperse, absorb, and isolate' them. She said a large number of unemployed young Chinese are deemed 'potential destabilizing factors' by the regime. Independent current affairs commentator Cai Shenkun told The Epoch Times on May 4 that China's exports are stalled across the board, domestic economic demand is weak, and college graduates can't find jobs, 'so the authorities can only take this approach to divert young people to the rural areas.' 'But this is a temporary solution,' he said. Cai said that if Xi had not gone against much of the world and had not followed Mao's path, China's economy would not have encountered such big problems. Protesters in Beijing hold up white pieces of paper to protest against censorship and China's strict zero-COVID measures, on Nov. 27, said that when China's economy deteriorates further, the pressure of basic survival increases, and oppression intensifies, it may prompt young Chinese to rise up against the regime. 'If the number of awakened citizens is large enough, it will lead to a new social movement,' Sheng said. But she pointed out that 'it also requires the grassroots people, the working people, the intellectual group, those with conscience within the CCP's system, as well as overseas forces and the international community, to form an alliance to end the CCP's tyranny.' Tang Bing and Luo Ya contributed to this report.
