China Focus: Draft decision on HK national security legislation submitted to NPC

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A draft decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to safeguard national security was submitted to China's national legislature for deliberation on Friday.

Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) explained the draft decision to the third session of the 13th NPC, which runs from May 22 to 28.

Since the return of Hong Kong to the motherland, China has been firmly implementing the principles of "one country, two systems," "the people of Hong Kong governing Hong Kong," and a high degree of autonomy, Wang said.

The practice of "one country, two systems" has achieved unprecedented success in Hong Kong, he said.

But the increasingly notable national security risks in the HKSAR have become a prominent problem, the vice chairman said, citing activities that have seriously challenged the bottom line of the "one country, two systems" principle, harmed the rule of law, and threatened national sovereignty, security and development interests.

Law-based and forceful measures must be taken to prevent, stop and punish such activities, he noted.

Article 23 of the Basic Law of the HKSAR stipulates that the HKSAR shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the HKSAR, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the HKSAR from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.

More than 20 years after Hong Kong's return, however, relevant laws are yet to materialize due to the sabotage and obstruction by those trying to sow trouble in Hong Kong and China at large, as well as external hostile forces, Wang said.

Considering Hong Kong's situation at present, efforts must be made at the state-level to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security, to change the long-term "defenseless" status in the field of national security, Wang said.
This will advance the institutional building to safeguard national security on the course of China's Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR, he said.

This will also strengthen the work of safeguarding national security and ensure the steady and enduring growth of the cause of "one country, two systems", he added.

Wang elaborated on the following basic principles:

-- Firmly safeguarding national security;
-- Upholding and improving the "one country, two systems";
-- Adhering to governing Hong Kong in accordance with the law;
-- Resolutely opposing external interference;
-- Substantially safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of Hong Kong residents;

The draft decision consists of an introduction and seven articles, according to Wang.

Article 1 states clearly that the country will unswervingly, fully and faithfully implement the principles of "one country, two systems," "the people of Hong Kong governing Hong Kong," and a high degree of autonomy; stresses taking necessary measures to establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security, as well as prevent, stop and punish activities endangering national security in accordance with the law;

Article 2 states clearly that the country resolutely opposes the interference in the HKSAR affairs by any foreign or external forces in any form and will take necessary countermeasures;

Article 3 specifies that it is the HKSAR's constitutional responsibilities to safeguard national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity; stresses that the HKSAR must complete the national security legislation stipulated in the Basic Law of the HKSAR at an earlier date and HKSAR's administrative, legislative and judicial organs must, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, effectively prevent, stop and punish acts endangering national security;

Article 4 specifies that the HKSAR must establish and improve the institutions and enforcement mechanisms for safeguarding national security; when needed, relevant national security organs of the Central People's Government will set up agencies in the HKSAR to fulfill relevant duties to safeguard national security in accordance with the law;

Article 5 specifies that the HKSAR chief executive must regularly report to the Central People's Government on the HKSAR's performance of the duty to safeguard national security, carry out national security education and forbid acts of endangering national security;

Article 6 specifies the constitutional meanings of related legislation of the NPC Standing Committee:

(1)Entrusting the NPC Standing Committee to formulate relevant laws on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the HKSAR to safeguard national security. The NPC Standing Committee will exercise its functions and powers of legislation under authorization;

(2)Specifying that relevant legal tasks for the NPC Standing Committee are to effectively prevent, stop and punish any act occurring in the HKSAR to split the country, subvert state power, organize and carry out terrorist activities and other behaviors that seriously endanger national security, as well as activities of foreign and external forces to interfere in the affairs of the HKSAR;

(3)Specifying the method of implementing relevant laws of the NPC Standing Committee in the HKSAR, that is, the NPC Standing Committee makes the decision to include relevant laws into Annex III of the Basic Law of the HKSAR, and the HKSAR promulgates and implements them;

Article 7 specifies that this decision shall go into effect as of the date of promulgation.

After the issuance of the decision, the NPC Standing Committee will work with related parties to formulate relevant laws at an earlier date for the HKSAR to safeguard national security, actively push for settling prominent problems in the national security system of the HKSAR, strengthen the building of special institutions, enforcement mechanisms and law enforcement forces, so as to ensure relevant laws' effective implementation in the HKSAR, Wang said. Enditem

The Epoch Times,dangerous propaganda masquerading as News

If you have watched a YouTube video in recent weeks, you have probably noticed the incessant wave of advertisements by a media company calling itself The Epoch Times. Their ads are so dominant right now on that site, it almost feels like they are the only company buying them, or that they are somehow being funded by YouTube. That’s not the case, they just have millions of dollars to spend, and aren’t shy about spending it. The content of these advertisements presents a picture of a media company trying to gain an audience by promoting news that is factual and without bias, but at the same time makes no effort to conceal its agenda of extremism, which is both disturbing, and dangerous to the public sphere. It is important that the general populace knows exactly who these people are.

The Epoch Times was started by John Tang in the year 2000 as a Chinese language newspaper. John Tang is a graduate of Georgia Tech who publicly supports the Fulan Gong, a Chinese religious order that opposes communism and as such is banned from practicing in China. The newspaper started as an anti-propaganda of the Chinese state, but quickly transitioned to other languages and although it actively promotes anti-communism (even gathering signatures for a petition to “stop the Chinese Communist Party on its homepage), much of its content is focused on hard right spinning of the news and promotion of conspiracy theories that actively spread false information.

Screenshot, YouTube (fair use)

For proof of The Epoch Times’ reckless portrayal of itself as a news organization, one has to look no further than how it has covered the covid-19 pandemic. It relentlessly refers to the novel coronavirus as the CCP virus (where CCP stands for the Chinese Communist Party). There are a multitude of stories on the site and on its YouTube channel that make claims about the virus’ origins that have not been proven, or are refuted by expert sources, such as conspiratorial assertions that the virus was manipulated and released by a lab in Wuhan and that the Chinese government has been actively covering it up. In one of their latest ads, they offer free to subscribers a lengthy booklet that explicitly focuses on this CCP Cover Up of Covid-19, calling it “the truth.” They also doggedly seem to promote the talking points of the Trump Administration, repeating its claims about testing and availability of resources that are easily disproved by multiple sources. A site like this that tells its audience it is a factual news source, while actively disseminating misinformation is a danger to the public.

If you want to know a media company’s bias, just look at where and how it spends its money. The Epoch Media Group was caught spending two million dollars in ads for the Trump campaign on Facebook, and utilizing “sock puppet” accounts to hide the sources of the funding, which resulted in them being banned from advertising on Facebook. They were the second highest source of funding for pro-Trump ads on the site, falling behind only the Trump campaign itself. Since they were booted from Facebook, it only makes sense they moved their focus over to YouTube, which explains the over abundance of their content being shoved in people’s faces right now.

The site News Guard rated The Epoch Times a 20 out of 100 for journalistic integrity. It found that the media organization readily mixed opinion with fact, and made no effort to distinguish the two. It found that they made little effort to verify sources before using them to report on events, and when caught in errors, it made little effort to correct itself. It found that often the writers of the articles were not disclosed to the public. And, most importantly, it found that the company knowingly published false content on a regular basis.

Screenshot, Youtube (fair use)

The Epoch Times, as of 2012, had a circulation of 1.3 million subscribers, according to its website. On YouTube, it shows having 210,000 people subscribed to its main channel, and another 200,000 subscribed to its subsidiary channel American Thought Leaders. On Twitter, they currently have 253k followers. On Facebook, 6 MILLION people follow their page. This is an unsettling number of people consuming information from a poisoned source, likely believing it to be factual. This source, along with other outlets that have risen in recent years along with Fox News and more recently OAN News, might as well work together for America’s own version of state-sponsored propaganda.

The question must be asked, how does the average American protect themselves from being misled in this era of “fake news”? And more importantly, why are organizations allowed to call themselves “the news” under the broad umbrella of opinionated fact-spinning? There once was an FCC regulation called The Fairness Doctrine that kept news sources from adhering to a particular bias. It maintained that information shared through media networks had to fairly showcase arguments of the opposition, especially on controversial issues. This regulation was abolished in 1987. The rule was removed from the federal register in 2011.

Without something like this in place, organizations have been allowed to run amok pretending to serve the public interest while subversely funneling information through their own agendas. They hide behind the First Amendment, operating under the pretense, that if they believe it to be true, it must not be a lie. As such, campaigns of misinformation have been utilized to actively deceive the American public, and we find ourselves in the middle of an information war. The question is, what can be done about it now? Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

Third person has died after respiratory illness outbreak at Greenspring Village, Fairfax officials say

CDC has tested 17 samples but has so far failed to identify the cause.

By  Fredrick Kunkle
July 18, 2019 at 5:43 a.m. GMT+8
A third person has died following an outbreak of respiratory illness at a Fairfax County assisted-living facility that began more than two weeks ago, county health officials said Wednesday.

The outbreak at Greenspring Village in Springfield also spread to the unit’s staff, affecting 19 employees, Fairfax County Health Department officials said.

At a news conference Wednesday at the agency’s headquarters, Benjamin Schwartz, director of epidemiology and population health at the Fairfax County Health Department, said tests, including those conducted on 17 samples by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have failed to identify a likely cause. Tests for Legionnaires’ disease have also come up negative. Officials tested for a range of common virus- or bacteria-borne respiratory illnesses.

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Schwartz also reassured the public yet again that the company that operates Greenspring has been keeping the agency apprised of changes and carrying out stepped-up sanitary and cleaning measures to halt the infection, including limiting visitors, social gatherings, group dining and new admissions. The outbreak has been confined so far to Greenspring’s assisted-living and skilled-nursing unit, which has 263 residents. People who have become ill have been quarantined in their rooms.

But some families have not been satisfied with Greenspring’s handling of the outbreak. Terese Brewster, whose 89-year-old mother is a resident of Greenspring’s assisted-living unit, criticized the company for failing to notify families about the outbreak and keep them informed about developments.

Brewster, who lives in Arlington, said the company issued a written notice on July 10 about the outbreak to her mother, who has dementia. But Brewster said the company didn’t inform her or an adult sister who lives nearby until accounts of the outbreak appeared in the media. Since then, in phone calls to on-site staff, Brewster has received reassurances but few details about what’s happening.

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“I’m just shocked. I just keep thinking if it was your parent, what would you expect?” Brewster said Wednesday.

Springfield assisted-living unit closes to new admissions amid illness outbreak

The complex is operated by Erickson Living, which serves about 24,000 people in a network of campuses for older people in 11 states.

Courtney Benhoff, an Erickson Living spokeswoman, defended the company’s response.

“Greenspring has been consistent and transparent in its communications to all residents, staff, family members and other stakeholders throughout," she said in an email, adding that the staff has kept the community informed through telephone calls, “in-house broadcast updates” and face-to-face conversations. She also said the Springfield location’s staff appears to be containing the infection, with no new cases reported in the past 24 hours and no new hospitalizations. Most of those residents who had been hospitalized have returned to Greenspring, and there have been no new illnesses among employees since Friday, Benhoff said.

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The notice that went out on July 10 from Donna L. Epps, an administrator at Greenspring, said several residents had been having symptoms of respiratory illness, including fever, coughing and body aches. Epps’s notice, which says the symptoms recede in about five to seven days with treatment but have caused pneumonia, also announced limits on visitors, enhanced sanitation measures and other steps.

“You may have seen media reports referring to these illnesses as an ‘outbreak’, which we understand can be alarming,” Epps wrote in a follow-up on Friday that said 50 people had been sickened. “In this letter, I want to provide you with clarity, transparency and the reassurance that we are taking all of the proper precautions to safeguard the health of this community and the well-being of all who live and work here.”

Late Tuesday, the Health Department gave an updated tally, saying 63 people in the assisted-living and skilled-nursing unit have become sick. The agency said there have been no new hospitalizations since 23 people were admitted after the outbreak began June 30. The agency was alerted to the outbreak on July 8.

Cause of Respiratory Illness Still Unknown After Dozens Sickened at Virginia Retirement Community

Fairfax County health officials said they don't yet have a cause of the respiratory illness that sicked more than 60 residents at a Northern Virginia senior living community.

The outbreak at Greenspring Retirement Community in Springfield began June 30. Sick residents had symptoms such as coughs, fevers and pneumonia.

Three people have also died, but Dr. Benjamin Schwartz of the Fairfax County Health Department said Wednesday afternoon that those who died were "older" and had complex health problems. Officials don't yet know the extent to which the respiratory illness contributed to their deaths, he said.

"The facility has done an excellent job implementing those infection-prevention measures," he said.

The outbreak was reported in the assisted living and skilled nursing areas of the community, where about 263 people live. The outbreak has now affected 63 of those residents. At least 20 were taken to a hospital.

There were no problems reported among the residents of the independent living portion of the community. 

Health officials said last week what was striking about the outbreak was the number of residents impacted and the time of year — summer instead of winter, when flu and respiratory illness usually spread.

Greenspring is working with the Fairfax County Health Department to try to stem the spread of the illness.

Greenspring issued a statement last week that read, in part, "Greenspring's highest priority is the welfare of those who live and work on campus … In partnership with the Fairfax County Department of Health, (Greenspring) has taken all necessary measures to fully implement proven infection prevention and control strategies."

The health department has sent several samples from infected patients to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing, but no cause for the outbreak has been identified, Schwartz said.

The health department is continuing to work with the facility on the investigation, he said. Testing for Legionnaires disease was negative, he said.

Schwartz said there were also reports of a respiratory illness outbreak at an assisted living facility several miles away in Burke, Virginia. About 25 people were ill there, including two with pneumonia; there have been no deaths. He said there is "no evidence of any connection whatsoever" between the two outbreaks.

'Respiratory outbreak' being investigated at retirement community after 54 residents fall ill

Deadly virus outbreak at Virginia retirement homeAccording to the Fairfax County Health Department, 11 days ago 54 people became ill with symptoms ranging from cough to pneumonia, now the "respiratory illness' left 2 dead and many hospitalized.

Two people have died and 18 others have been hospitalized after a "respiratory outbreak" at a Virginia retirement community, according to officials.

The Fairfax County Department of Health said that 54 individuals had become ill with "respiratory symptoms ranging from upper respiratory symptoms (cough) to pneumonia" in the last 11 days at Greenspring Retirement Community in Springfield.

In a letter Wednesday to residents obtained by ABC News affiliate WJLA-TVin Washington D.C., Greenspring described symptoms as "fever, cough, body aches, wheezing, hoarseness and general weakness."

(MORE: 64-year-old plans to spend 'golden' age at Holiday Inn instead of retirement home)

Benjamin Schwartz, a health department director, told ABC News on Thursday that the outbreak had been reported in the assisted-living and skilled-nursing sections. He said the outbreak began with the first case on June 30.

The sign for Greenspring Retirement Community is shown in Springfield, Virgina.

The sign for Greenspring Retirement Community is shown in Springfield, Virgina.WTTG

The specific cause of the outbreak had not yet been identified but additional tests of samples were being done, according to Schwartz.

The assisted-living and skilled-nursing facility in Greenspring is home to 263 residents, Schwartz said. He said the two patients who died in the outbreak had been hospitalized with pneumonia but were "older individuals with complex medical problems."

"One of the things about skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities is [that] when you have a lot of people in close proximity, who have underlying medical conditions, there is an increased risk for outbreaks," he said. "Seeing a respiratory outbreak in a long-term care facility is not odd. ... One thing that's different about this outbreak is just that it's occurring in the summer when, usually, we don't have a lot of respiratory disease."

Of those initially hospitalized, seven have returned to the retirement home, said Courtney Benoff, regional communications manager for Erikson Living, which owns the retirement home.

The health department said that although there had been no new hospitalizations in the "past couple of days," residents were still getting sick in the outbreak.

In a statement, Greenspring said that its "highest priority is the welfare of those who live and work on campus."

(MORE: Little boy gives roses to nursing home residents, tickets for 'being too cute')

"In keeping with this commitment the community has acted with an abundance of caution, and in partnership with the Fairfax County Department of Health, has taken all necessary measures to fully implement proven infection prevention and control strategies. We remain vigilant in our response and will continue to provide frequent and transparent updates to residents, staff and family members," the retirement home said in a statement.

The Fairfax County Health Department said it is investigating the incident.

The department said that appropriate measures had been taken to reduce the risk of infection and keep residents safe, including closing the facility to new admissions, cancelling group activities, keeping ill residents in their rooms and increasing cleaning.

Residents experiencing any of those symptoms were urged to call the community's medical center.

ABC News' Amanda Maile, Sarah Herndon and Kyra Phillips contributed to the reporting in this story.

Epoch Times conspiracy 'news' sent to Oxfordshire councillors

SOUTH Oxfordshire councillors have raised the alarm after they were apparently targeted by a Trump-backing, Chinese conspiracy theory-peddling website spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.

The email, sent to members of South Oxfordshire District Council, is from what appears to be a personal Gmail account belonging to someone called Nathan Song, but includes links to the website of the Epoch Times, a news organisation run by dissidents from China, who in recent years have backed Donald Trump’s presidency and promoted several prominent conspiracy theories.

In the email, titled ‘Please support our review of China policy’, councillors are invited to watch an hour-long documentary and read a digital version of Epoch Times' 60-page March/April edition.

Also read: Oxford City Council facing £24 million shortfall from coronavirus

Both the video and newspaper make claims that China covered up the spread of coronavirus in early 2020 and call for it to be renamed the ‘CPP virus’ after the ruling political party in the country.

In other areas of the UK, there have been reports of councillors receiving emails directly from Epoch Times itself rather than from proxy email addresses.

One of the SODC councillors who received the email was Alexandrine Kantor.

Alexandrine Kantor.

She said she had not received any emails of a similar type since having started her role on the council in May last year.

Ms Kantor said: “We usually received lobbying emails based on general issues or local issues: the environment, the local plan and so on and obviously they are relevant to something we do, but this one is completely out of the blue.”

She warned that ‘propaganda’ from the email could sway some people who received the email, if it was sent en masse to hundreds of different councillors, and said demanding the virus be renamed to the Wuhan virus or CCP virus might lead to a rising fear of people of Chinese descent living in the UK.

She added: “Hostility and racism against Asian people has risen a lot since the crisis, any attempt to call it a Chinese virus will increase tensions and no one needs that.”

There were 267 hate crimes against Chinese people or people of Asian origin living in the UK between January and March this year.

In all of 2019 there were 375 hate crimes against the same group, and in 2018 there were 360.

The email was apparently sent to only some members of SODC’s Lib Dem group, but not all of them.

Green councillor Robin Bennett said he recalled receiving the email but deleted it.

Councillors on the neighbouring Vale of White Horse District Council – which has close links to SODC – have not received them at all.

According to the New Statesman councils up and down the UK have also received emails either from Epoch Times directly, or from proxy emails.

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A screenshot from the email.

Authorities which have received emails providing the same links include those in Bradford, Sutton, West Sussex, Wigan, and parts of London.

There are reports that members of the Scottish parliament have also received similar emails.

Epoch Times is part of a company called the Epoch Media Group, which is itself a media extension of a Falun Gong, a religious movement within China.

Practitioners of the religion are reportedly heavily persecuted by the Chinese state, and Epoch Times is banned within China.

Also read: Complaint over emails from deputy crime commissioner

In 2019, NBC News reported that Epoch Media was among the highest paying social media advertisers promoting pro-Trump adverts on Facebook, second only to the Trump campaign.

It was reported to have spent $1.5 million dollars on pro-Trump adverts over a six month period up until August last year.

Through its various websites and YouTube accounts, Epoch Times has also promoted conspiracy theories that the American ‘deep state’ is determined to bring about the president’s downfall, as well as anti-vaccination conspiracies.

Epoch Times said: "We do not know who Nathan Song is nor do we have any involvement in his emails."

Expanding Pro-Trump Outlet ‘The BL’ Is Closely Linked to The Epoch Times

Both The Epoch Times and The BL deny any connection whatsoever. Our report makes that a challenging argument to defend.

• ALEX KASPRAK
• JORDAN LILES

• PUBLISHED 11 OCTOBER 2019

The Epoch Times was founded by Chinese-American adherents to a spiritual movement and meditation practice known as Falun Gong. That news outlet has in recent years, as reported by BuzzFeed News and NBC News, transformed into a misinformation-laden, pro-Trump mouthpiece. After Facebook banned The Epoch Times from buying ads on that social media network in the summer of 2019, several “sock-puppet pages” popped up promoting Epoch Times content without disclosure. Facebook banned these pages from ad buys as well in August, following NBC News’ follow-up reporting.

Here, Snopes reports on a pro-Trump media network whose reach is rapidly expanding on Facebook and is linked in multiple ways to The Epoch Times. This outlet, which goes by the name The BL (The Beauty of Life) and first appeared around 2016, is a large international operation. It has a prodigious social media presence on Facebook that can be linked to at least 82 Facebook groups and pages representing a total of over 28 million followers. The site has spent at least $510,698 on Facebook ad buys with pro-Trump content and other promotions. Its staff members also appear to be cultivating several Trump-specific Facebook pages and groups and covertly administering them under the umbrella of The BL, in most cases without disclosure.

Despite the fact that the CEO of the company that owns The BL was once the CEO of Epoch Times Vietnam, and despite the fact that The BL’s editor-in-chief is a former editor-in-chief of The Epoch Times English language edition, an unnamed representative of The BL told us by email that “The BL has NO connection with The Epoch Times.” Similarly, The Epoch Times’ publisher, Stephen Gregory, told us by email that “The Epoch Times is not affiliated with the BL.” Such statements, we believe, are not reflective of reality.

The Falun Gong Media Empire

The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 by followers of the Falun Gong movement. Falun Gong, according to its adherents, is “an ancient … way for improving mind and body” which includes meditation and other exercises along with spiritual teachings. “At the core of these teachings are the values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance,” a postby the non-profit Friends of Falun Gong stated. However, the Wall Street Journal reportedthat “Beijing declared Falun Gong an evil cult and launched a brutal crackdown on its practitioners in China” In 1999. This investigation is not about the Falun Gong movement or its practices, but about media properties linked to the movement.

According to a 2004 description on their website, the inspiration for The Epoch Times’ founding was a “response to the growing need for uncensored coverage of events in China.” As part of an effort to raise awareness about their cause and persecution, Falun Gong followers created a global web of media entities, including a newspaper, a television station, and a radio station: The Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty TV (NTD TV), and Sound of Hope Radio. Starting in 2016, these companies began to dedicate significant resources to entering the pro-Trump media market.

“Before 2016, The Epoch Times generally stayed out of U.S. politics, unless they dovetailed with Chinese interests,” NBC News reported in August 2019. “The publication’s recent ad strategy, coupled with a broader campaign to embrace social media and conservative U.S. politics — Trump in particular — has doubled The Epoch Times’ revenue … and pushed it to greater prominence in the broader conservative media world.” From a raw numbers perspective, the paper’s support of Trump is prolific. On Facebook, The Epoch Times has “spent more money on pro-Trump … advertisements than any group other than the Trump campaign,” NBC stated.

The Epoch Times’ actions have also drawn the scrutiny of Facebook, who in July 2019 began to ban some Epoch Times Facebook pages from running political ads. “Over the past year we removed accounts associated with the Epoch Times for violating our ad policies, including trying to get around our review systems,” a Facebook spokesperson told NBC news. To circumvent this hurdle, The Epoch Times used “sock-puppet” Facebook accounts to direct users to generically named URLs such as genuinenewspaper.com and truthandtradition.news which then redirected those users to The Epoch Times’ subscription page, NBC News reported. This work-around appears to have been shut down by Facebook by August 2019.

A response to NBC News’ reporting in the form of an open letter first published on the Falun Gong website faluninfo.net accused NBC reporters Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins of presenting “distortions that track very closely to official Chinese communist party propaganda points.” This open letter was published on NTD.com, The Epoch Timeswebsite, and — notably — TheBL.com.

The Many, Many Connections Between The BL and The Epoch Times

The assertion that “The BL has no connection with The Epoch Times” strains credulity for several reasons. The BL — which we again note stands for “The Beauty of Life” — is owned by a company first registered in California as Beauties of Life, Inc. in 2016. The company later switched its state of incorporation to Wyoming and its name to The Beauty of Life, Inc. Two individuals are named in the Wyoming corporate documents as directors of the company: Trung Vu and John Nania. Trung Vu had been the CEO of the Vietnamese edition of The Epoch Times and later worked for the related NTD TV. John Nania served as editor in chief at The Epoch Times English edition from 2004 to 2015 and later for a website, America Daily, that was run by another Falun Gong-linked media operation: Sound of Hope Radio Network:

In response to a followup email in which we listed several apparent connections between The BL and The Epoch Times, an unnamed person at The BL told us that “Our CEO Trung Vu was the CEO of Epoch Times Vietnam from 2014, and had been working for NTD Television from mid 2016 to the end of 2017. He left NTD and has been fully working on The BL after that.”

Despite claims of total corporate independence between The BL and Epoch Times properties, Vu used his NTD email address when he registered The Beauty of Life, Inc. in 2019 — two years after he allegedly left NTD TV. “The email in the document is his old email address, it doesn’t mean The BL is a property of NTD or has connection with NTD Television company,” The BL explained, without explaining how or why the email address had been used as recently as January 2019, two years after Vu was said to have left NTD.

The BL also asserted in their email that their “servers and network infrastructure are … own[ed] by The BL.” But at least one server used by The BL at the time of this writing was registered to Epoch Times Vietnam by Trung Vu — another fact we raised for which we did not receive a direct response. Like the email address used in corporate documents, Vu chose to use this contact information despite the fact that the server was registered well after Beauties of Life, Inc. had been incorporated as its own company.

The Middletown, New York, address listed for The BL is not without its own connections to Falun Gong associated media, either. Based on public record searches performed by Snopes, that location is linked to or owned by the Falun Gong “Sound of Hope Radio Network.” As it turns out, this connection may be because the same address was once the location of a production studio used by well-known Falun Gong YouTuber Mikey Chen, who produces the shows “Beyond Science” and “Strictly Dumpling,” among others. Until he left this studio and created what may be his own media company, these shows were produced by the Sound of Hope Radio Network, Inc. according to employee descriptions of their work which we found on LinkedIn:

A video tour of the actual office in question, in which at least two people we identify as past writers for The Epoch Times are introduced, is available on Chen’s YouTube channel and matches real estate photographs advertising the Middletown property. “The BL is … not a company or property of Sound of Hope Radio Network, we rent the office in Middletown NY,” The BL told us, without disclosing from whom they rented it.

A suspiciously large number of The BL’s editorial staff members are currently or were previously in the employ of The Epoch Times. The managing editor of The BL, Orysia McCabe, at the time of this writing listed her current employer on LinkedIn as The Epoch Times. The page manager of the The BL’s main Facebook page, Margaret Trey, was a health and wellness writer for The Epoch Times and a writer for NTD TV.

Several political writers or commentators have a similar background. Angela Anderson, an on-camera host for The BL, wrote for Epoch Times until June 2019. Matt Tullar, another on-camera host and commentator, was once the director of circulation for The Epoch Times and lists his current job on LinkedIn as sales & marketing director for the Orange County edition of The Epoch Times. Gregory, the Epoch Times publisher, told us “Tullar stopped working for The Epoch Times in October 2016. The Orange County edition of The Epoch Times closed years ago.”

Chris Ford, The BL’s politics editor, wrote for The Epoch Times until August 2019. Severalother of The BL’s political reporters come from The Epoch Times as well. A “few of our staff has job experience … working in The Epoch Times, but now they are working full time in The BL,” The BL explained to us via email.

On at least one occasion a video about the persecution of Falun Gong posted on the Epoch Times website displayed an overt link between NTD TV, Epoch Times, and The BL — all three were listed as sponsors in the video’s credits. Asked why all three entities were included at the end of the video if no connection existed between The BL and the other two companies, Stephen Gregory, The Epoch Times’ publisher, told us that “the video was an external production and lists media companies who promoted the production.”

The BL, for their part, reiterated in their second email to us that “The BL is a separate company and independent from The Epoch Times, not a property of The Epoch Times or [connected] with [them]. It is just different media company with [a] different vision.”

A “Different Vision”

“The BL,” according to the About section of their Facebook page, “is like a pure mountain spring, moistening the heart of every reader. It aims to plant the seeds of sincerity, goodness, and tolerance deep into the soul, so that it may grow and prosper.” Their mission, they state, is “to present to the world the most beautiful aspects of life [by focusing] on content that represents fundamental moral standards and values.” Vague aphorisms aside, The BL — like The Epoch Times — is a hotbed of fervent Trump fandom.

“We’re proud to show our support for this president and we choose to report on the many positive outcomes and values-based direction this presidency is going,” BL video host Rich Crankshaw explained in a Facebook ad for The BL. “The mainstream media serves to instill fear and hate into the hearts of their followers … Instead of just reporting the facts, we aim to balance that negativity with The BL, the beauty of life, and the greatness of this nation.”

Editorially, The BL provides the same fawning coverage of Trump as The Epoch Times, content which serves to amplify White House talking points and proffer (or repost) pro-Trump takes on White House scandals. The BL, for example, has attempted to discredit the Ukraine whistleblower as part of a George Soros conspiracy and has pushed the conspiracy theory that the Clinton family kills their political enemies. At least one BL-owned Facebook page has promoted the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory. Sometimes cutting out the middleman entirely, The BL directly reposts unedited statements from the White House, as they did for their anti-Mueller post “The 2-year, $25 million witch hunt.”

From an advertising perspective, The BL’s approach also appears indistinguishable from The Epoch Times’: purchase a massive volume of Facebook ads that are putatively promotions for their outlet but are in most cases indistinguishable from basic Trump campaign ads:

There are multiple official “The BL” pages on Facebook, and many of them have paid for these pro-Trump ads. Their main English-language page, The BL.com, has spent a total of $276,929 on Facebook ads. The BL TV and The BL Story spent over $100,000 each on Facebook ads. The BL Video, The BL News, and The BL Shedding Light spent another $12,000 or so. All told, at least $510,698 has gone to Facebook from The BL.

The BL’s success in preventing their ads from being banned by Facebook is also comparable to the success exhibited by the Epoch Times, which is to say extremely limited. Based on Facebook’s Ad Library tool, The BL posted 908 ads, of which 864 were taken down for violating Facebook’s policies. All 121 of the ads run by The BL TV and all 168 run by The BL Stories were removed as well. The outlet, as a whole, hasn’t posted a Facebook ad since August 2019, roughly when Facebook started cracking down on Epoch Times-related content.

We reached out to Facebook to ask if these BL pages have been banned from running ads and if that circumstance was due to a link to The Epoch Times, but we had not received a response by press time. The BL appears to be employing other methods to gain followers outside of ad buys, however.

How Does The BL Have 28 Million Followers on Facebook?

The BL’s Facebook reach is massive and expanding. The Spanish-language BL page Bellezas de la Vida is the largest, with over 10 million followers. That page, perhaps counter-intuitively, appears most aggressive, with some pro-Trump conspiracy theories, postings about Q, and advertisements for a show that alleges real collusion between the Clintons and China. There are, at our last count, at least 22 Facebook BL pages with the BL logo, some of which are geared toward different countries, languages, and themes. The BL’s presence in the Asian market, based on links from The BL’s English edition, appears to go by the name DKN TV.

But The BL’s Facebook operation is more than just these official pages. The BL Facebook pages, as well as accounts tied to The BL’s staff members, appear to be gaining control of and/or creating several pages and groups with no obvious link to the BL, gaining control of their followers, and in some cases adding links to a BL website. Such pages and groups are in some cases officially created by The BL, leading to a complex web of interrelated Trump pages ultimately moderated by Facebook profiles with a clear connection to both The Epoch Times and The BL. A Facebook account bearing the same name as managing editor Orysia McCabe, as an example, appears to run at least six pro-Trump Facebook groups that are linked to The BL. Matt Tullar, host and commentator for The BL, seems to run at least three.

As another example, an official BL-controlled Facebook group is named PRESIDENT TRUMP – AMERICA 2020. This group’s connection to The BL is not secret, as it is listed as one of the groups on The BL’s main English-language Facebook page. The Trump 2020 group has several moderators or administrators, including one that is a Vietnamese-based page named America First. America First, in turn, serves as the moderator for at least 17 other groups whose other moderators are clearly linked to The Epoch Times and/or The BL. A group named TRUMP MAGA 2020 moderated by America First, for example, is also moderated by the Facebook account of David Montgomery. Montgomery, on his own Facebook timeline, has interacted with The BL’s CEO Trung Vu and primarily shares links to both The Epoch Times and The BL.

Other pages or groups appear to have been purchased or otherwise transferred from unrelated entities. These pages, whose names often include the themes “Beauty” and “Life,” predate the formation of the media network but now advertise a link to a BL website and even sometimes display the Middletown, New York, address, while consisting solely of posts unrelated to The BL.

An example of this practice can be found in a Chinese-language page whose English-language URL is “BeautiesOfLifeLoveQuotes.” This page was created in 2014 and has built a substantial following of over 800,000 users. Prior to 2017, when the name of the group was changed, its content consisted primarily of sultry pictures of women. Following this shift, it started posting what appear to be uplifting text and photo memes about relationships. In terms of content, there is no reason to think the page has anything to do with The BL, yet the page — with its substantial follower base — displays a link to the Chinese-language version of The BL and a map to the Middletown address.

Scanning for BL-related groups that fit either of the above descriptions, Snopes has identified at least 60 additional groups or pages tied to The BL but which lack their logo in their profile photos or “The BL” in their titles. All told, these Facebook entities’ followers comprise at least 3.5 million of the 28 million followers of all BL pages or groups we identify in the table below. By any metric, this is a massive reach for a media outlet.

To What End?

We do not know why The BL refuses to acknowledge any connection to the broader Epoch Times media group, nor do we know what they plan to do with the prodigious number of followers they appear to be rapidly accumulating. What we do know, however, is both The Epoch Times and The BL are being less than forthright by categorically denying any connection between their organizations.

In the early 2000s, the Wall Street Journal described one of the major problems facing the perceived legitimacy of The Epoch Times as “their unwillingness to identify themselves as having any association with the [Falun Gong], despite ample evidence to the contrary.” Faced with the same quandary, The BL seems to have a similar aversion to admitting any association with The Epoch Times.