China Uncensored's Alleged FLG links and other Falun Gong Media

Politics International Politics
101

The biggest issue I have with FLG is that they were once almost state sponsored, and while they had that status, they didn’t do much to change the system. It almost goes the same with Ma Yun and his company, or any one or group successful in China. Even laowhy86, prozzie and SerpentZa fall in the same situation. They tried to be as positive about China as they could while they were in China. It’s just by even showing the actual conditions inside Chian, even if you do it in a humanizing and positive fashion is unacceptable to the CCP.

Of course I can understand why one wouldn’t want to bite the hand that feeds you, or would want to stay safe while in China. It’s also great that once they were forced out they are willing to speak the truth about China. But if we only expect people outside of China to speak out, then China would never change.

102

Sorry, I completely understand why they wouldnt try to change the system. Its silly to expect them to.

Read about the Democracy Party of China. In more open times of the late-90’s they went to register themselves as an official political party in China. That same day all hundred odd members were arrested and put in prison for 13 years. Their lives were destroyed Democracy Party of China - Wikipedia

Too expect efl teachers like Serpantza to change things is even more preposterous.

The FLG were Apolitical, they only became political when they were suppressed.

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103

If I live in a state where I can get persecuted without reason, like the FLG or Ma Yun, then I’d rather get persecuted for a reason.

104

Im not really sure of your meaning, any sniff of real dissent is met with the severest of punishment. There are no heroes. Nobody remembers that democracy party, there are no records, they have no digital footprint in China. But all of the participants were destroyed, completely destroyed

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105

China Uncensored is undeniably FLG media.

106

Some Reddit discussions on this https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/9ja6es/do_people_consider_china_uncensored_reliable/

107

Im not sure about Sinoinsider these days as well. I think they are all connected to the FLG. Their analysis is spot on though still.

The QAnon/Trump shit the last six months has just given me such a bad taste. How can you trust anyone who thinks Trump is a superhero fighting evil in the world?

108

I don’t get the hatred for FLG. I’ve known people in the organization. To a person, they are some of the nicest, most devout people that I’ve ever known. One such person was somebody that I knew in China though I didn’t have any idea about her practice until she vanished and whispers were that she was being ‘re-educated’. She did return a few months later, hair obviously coming back from being shaved and trying to recover from having dropped a good percentage of her bodyweight.

Why, oh why would such people harbor biases against the CCP? That would be like Jewish people having something against the NSDAP or American blacks not being fair and balanced when discussing the KKK. Unfathomable.

I find China Uncensored and American Uncovered to be good shows worth watching.

I also find anybody who discounts a person’s opinion because of their rumored religious practices not worth listening to.

109

Wrong. See above posts.

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110

I didn’t know redditors were an authoritative source!

Next time I’ll get all my information from a guy named RogueAngelX. If he says it, it must be true!

111

I really dont know. People from cults are usually pretty nice, there are some articles about the dark side of the Falun Gong.

As an organization they have some pretty mental beliefs. A lot of the Trump stuff is insane.

But you are right. I’ve met some flg people and they are pretty nice and for the most part,it’s just breathing exercises.

I completely understand and sympathize why they would have hatred for the CCP. I think ive wrote a few times about this on here. They have been horribly persecuted.

Thats your prerogative. Its too tabloid overblown for me. I spend about two hours a day reading stuff on China and can recommend you heaps of more reliable sources.

Falun Gong are pretty out there and their news are just fool of mistruths and lies. Epoch Times, NTD etc are just 70% fake news, and are proven to be. With limited hours in every day, I dont know why anyone would seriously bother with anything they say, when so often they are just found speaking bullshit.

Alex Jones is right sometimes, but the river of spurious nonsensical crap that comes out out his mouth 99% of the time is reason to disregard him as a reliable source.

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112

Which?

113

Im just saying for people who attentively follow China and China news, there is a general consensus on FLG and CU. And R/China is very very anti-CCP.

That doesnt mean you need to think the same, its not authoritative, but a lot of people feel the same way

114

Who is this directed to lol?

I am a bit lost but am open to a more direct line of questioning about what I currently think to be true. My opinion on this is still quite malleable btw. Learning.

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115

What do you currently think to be true?

I think @Terry_B is right. Should make a distinction between Falun Gong and Falun Gong media as they are not analogous. Must flg followers are just doing breathing exercises that help them rekax

116

Our conversation in September. It is far from undeniable and there is no proof. They are definitely very friendly to each other. But it is not ‘undeniable’ that they are Falun Gong Media.

117

It’s a funny show and they have experts on. That’s all that matters.

118

I would say it’s most likely for all the reasons already discussed in this thread. They are funded by the flg.

They were hosted by the flg, they are flg practitioners, they push flg talking points, their producer is flg, they link to flg materials. Occam’s Razor suggests that mostly likely they are still funded and supported by flg.

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119

I don’t think I’ve ever managed to make it through a full episode of China Uncensored, actually, although I have tried several times. I completely gave up on it in the middle of last year during all the episodes insisting that the Three Gorges Dam was definitely, imminently about to collapse while the presenter was practically salivating at the thought. It’s still there, no?

It’s obvious from the tone that it’s not a reliable source of information. Are people really able to watch it without coming to the same conclusion? (Rhetorical question of course, as evidenced by the coronavirus China thread etc.)

120

From a Quora Post this week

Just to provide clear evidence that China Uncensored at least was in the past produced by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) and therefore Falun Gong, you can see that their older videos such as this 2013 one have on the title “NTD China Uncensored” and an watermark on the top right:

am not sure why they mark was removed at least in new videos as of 2019 some possibilities are:

  • the creators wanted more independence from NTD now that they have almost 1 million subscribers and can somewhat stand on their own feet.

For example, in December 2020, by eyeballing, they published about 16 videos with roughty 200k views each on average. With an average 1 USD per view, that makes 3200 dollars on that month. Multiply by say, 2x for old video watches, and maybe they can make a living out of this. 16 videos/month is A LOT of work, even for 2/3 people, so they likey work full time on it. Maybe they have an editor from NTD helping out.

  • make the Falun Gong affiliation less visible to have greater credibility

But without a doubt, they have or had extremely close ties to NTD, and were very likely funded or otherwise supported by NTD at least in the past.

It is therefore also extremely likely that the presenter Chris Chappell and any producers that were present in the NTD era (not sure if any) are Falun Gong believers.

This 2020–05–31 video by China Uncensored claims that they give some/all their episodes to NTDTV for free, and they add subtitles and broadcast them by satellite into China, confirming their continued close ties to NTDTV:

The China Uncensored website also credits a Matt Gnaizda a producer, and we can see that he is also credited as a long time contributor to The Epoch Times from 2005 to 2014, which means that the extremely likely to be a Falun Gong practitioner.

In the comments, Quora user Michael Cheng mentions that he attended the December 2019 Taiwan meet the fans event (presumably referred to here), and in that event China Uncensored also claimed that:

  • they still shoot in studios owned by NTD
  • NTD does not have editorial control over their show

There is unfortunately no online source that we know of where this is mentioned.

There’s nothing wrong in being affiliated with a religion, but they should disclose it more clearly, not doing so hurts more than helps.

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