This interview comes from a different corner of the media landscape: Joshua Philipp, an investigative reporter with The Epoch Times, speaking about Marxism in America, the threat from communist China, unconventional warfare, and Hong Kong. The Epoch Times, founded by practitioners of Falun Gong who had fled persecution in China, has spent years reporting on the Chinese Communist Party from the outside, and Philipp’s work reflects that perspective — that the party is not only a government in Beijing, but an active participant in a global information and influence war.
Philipp argues that China wages unconventional warfare not mainly with soldiers, but with propaganda, espionage, economic leverage, and the shaping of public opinion in the West. That includes the spread of Marxist ideas in American institutions, the use of front groups and friendly media, and the effort to influence how China itself is covered. In Hong Kong, he says, those methods met open resistance, as protesters in 2019 defied Beijing’s tightening control over a city that had been promised freedom and the rule of law.
For viewers, this conversation matters because it connects three stories that are often told separately: the rise of Marxist thinking in America, the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign abroad, and the fight for Hong Kong’s freedom. Whether or not viewers share Philipp’s conclusions, his reporting from The Epoch Times offers a view of the China threat that mainstream coverage often misses — and a warning that the contest with Beijing is being fought as much in the media as on any battlefield.