Washington: The U.S. designated four more Chinese media companies as “foreign missions,” doubling down on a tit-for-tat strategy that’s aimed at calling attention to President Xi Jinping’s strict controls over news organizations but has resulted in both sides ordering news organizations to cut staff.
The State Department’s foreign mission designation means reporters in the U.S. for the four news organizations will essentially be treated as Chinese government diplomats, with requirements that their employers detail their identities and the number of people on staff. It also imposes constraints on visas and acquiring property.
The media outlets covered are China Central Television, the People’s Daily, China News Service and the Global Times, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia David Stilwell told reporters Monday. U.S. officials denied that the move would curtail press freedoms, arguing instead that the news organizations are nothing more than propaganda outlets and should be treated as such.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a tweet that he made the move “in order to ensure greater transparency of CCP-run operations in the United States.” He was referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
In order to ensure greater transparency of CCP-run operations in the United States, I directed the designation of four additional PRC propaganda outlets as foreign missions.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) June 22, 2020
Separately, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Monday ordered a halt to programming being sent from the U.S. to a Chinese-language radio station broadcasting from Mexico after critics said it could be used by Beijing to air propaganda to southern California’s Chinese immigrant community.
The FCC said the programming flow to XEWW-AM in Rosarito, Baja California Norte, Mexico, needed to cease within 48 hours. The agency dismissed an application by GLR Southern California and H&H Group USA, but left them the opportunity to reapply.
The State Department’s move on the media outlets echoes a decision in February to tag five other Chinese state news organizations with the designation. It’s part of a more aggressive strategy under the Trump administration to call out what it sees as Chinese government wrongdoing — such as Beijing’s handling of the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic — along with human rights abuses.
Stilwell said he wasn’t able to say how many reporters would be included in the latest designation. The last time the U.S. took such action, China responded by kicking out some American correspondents with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and other outlets and forced at least seven Chinese nationals working for them to resign.
China’s Communist Party “doesn’t just exercise propaganda control but it has full editorial control over their content,” Stilwell told reporters. “These four entities are not media but are propaganda outlets.” – Bloomberg
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