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U.S. designates 5 major Chinese media outlets as government entities
By Anna Fifield, Carol Morello and Emily Rauhala
Feb. 18, 2020 at 4:38 p.m. EST
BEIJING — The State Department on Tuesday designated five Chinese media outlets as official government entities under the Foreign Missions Act, meaning they will treated as though they are diplomatic outposts of the Chinese government and subject to the same constraints.
The move is the latest in a series of U.S. efforts to tackle China’s influence in the United States. It will be sure to anger Beijing, which generally views U.S. government’s actions — from the trade war and the accusations against Huawei to criticism of its human rights record — as an effort to thwart China’s global rise.
The media outlets are the official Xinhua News Agency; China Global Television Network, known as CGTN, the international arm of state broadcaster CCTV; China Radio International; the China Daily newspaper; and Hai Tian Development, a U.S. company linked to the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China.
The 1982 Foreign Missions Act covers matters like license plates for embassy vehicles and diplomatic immunity, but it also governs how foreign governments operate in the United States.
Practically speaking, Tuesday’s decision was likely more symbolic than punitive.
The five Chinese news outlets will be required to provide a list of their current staff, including names, ages and addresses, and to update it when there are any changes. They also must get State Department approval to purchase or lease any real estate, though that requirement does not apply to individual employees who buy or rent housing.
That information will be shared with other government agencies, including intelligence units, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity under State Department rules for briefing reporters.
American officials have become increasingly concerned in recent years that Chinese authorities are using journalists to do government work in the United States, noting that a number of Chinese journalists enter the country on official passports, which are issued by governments to do official business.
But the designation does not carry any journalistic restrictions that would limit where reporters employed by the five outlets can report, including attending State Department briefings or news conferences.
Two State Department officials declined to discuss internal considerations on whether Beijing will retaliate against foreign reporters working in China.
“We’re painfully aware of the very tough operating environment that U.S. and other foreign journalists operate under in China … It’s already the case that freedom of the press is under severe siege in the People’s Republic of China,” one State Department official said.
The five organizations are all part of a huge propaganda apparatus that transmits the Communist Party’s views to China and the world. Democracy advocates have warned about China’s increasingly aggressive attempts to shape the global narrative about its actions at home and abroad.
But the U.S. has struggled to find a way to respond forcefully while protecting free speech.
“Because we are an open, transparent society our tool set is limited as to what we can actually do,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In 2018, the Department of Justice Ordered Xinhua and CGTN to register under the Foreign Agents Registration act as part of an effort to combat influence operations.
What the United States has done so far, she said, “doesn’t stop them from sending out the messages they are sending,” Glaser said.
But it does flag the issue for the general public.
“It is alerting people to pay attention to the fact that the message that these organizations give out is one that the Chinese Communist Party wants them to hear, not what we consider real, objective journalism,” Glaser added.
Under leader Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has dramatically stepped up pervasive censorship and state control inside China and extended efforts to reach readers and viewers elsewhere.
“China is trying to promote itself as an international model,” said Sarah Cook, senior research analyst for China at Freedom House and the author of a report, “Beijing’s Global Megaphone,” released in January.
“Beijing has a large toolbox for influencing media around the world and its tactics have been evolving, especially since 2017,” Cook said.
In the United States, these media organizations have Chinese reporters dispatched to provide news about the U.S. to a Chinese audience, like foreign correspondents. But they also have stepped up efforts to reach the American market.
When Xi toured state media outlets in 2016, he told them to “speak for the Party” and “tell China’s story to the world.”
Xi has said repeatedly that “telling stories is the best form of international dissemination” when it comes to telegraphing China’s messages to the world, notes David Bandurski of China Media Project.
By inclusion in cable packages, CGTN America, which is based in Washington, has been able to reach an estimated 30 million households in the United States.
The China Daily, its English-language paper, is available on newsstands in places such as New York and congressional offices in Washington. China Daily has also adopted a practice it calls “borrowing the boat to reach the sea” to place its content in advertorial “China Watch” supplements in newspapers, including The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Xinhua produces copy that is highly favorable to the Chinese government, by disseminating the official view on events like the Hong Kong protests or the detention camps for Muslims in Xinjiang, or stories that are sharply critical of adversaries, with the United States being public enemy number one.
During the Soviet era, Russian news organizations like Tass and Pravda also were designated foreign missions. Several years ago, the Vietnam News Agency got the designation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...2b3ece-5210-11ea-80ce-37a8d4266c09_story.html
By Anna Fifield, Carol Morello and Emily Rauhala
Feb. 18, 2020 at 4:38 p.m. EST
BEIJING — The State Department on Tuesday designated five Chinese media outlets as official government entities under the Foreign Missions Act, meaning they will treated as though they are diplomatic outposts of the Chinese government and subject to the same constraints.
The move is the latest in a series of U.S. efforts to tackle China’s influence in the United States. It will be sure to anger Beijing, which generally views U.S. government’s actions — from the trade war and the accusations against Huawei to criticism of its human rights record — as an effort to thwart China’s global rise.
The media outlets are the official Xinhua News Agency; China Global Television Network, known as CGTN, the international arm of state broadcaster CCTV; China Radio International; the China Daily newspaper; and Hai Tian Development, a U.S. company linked to the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China.
The 1982 Foreign Missions Act covers matters like license plates for embassy vehicles and diplomatic immunity, but it also governs how foreign governments operate in the United States.
Practically speaking, Tuesday’s decision was likely more symbolic than punitive.
The five Chinese news outlets will be required to provide a list of their current staff, including names, ages and addresses, and to update it when there are any changes. They also must get State Department approval to purchase or lease any real estate, though that requirement does not apply to individual employees who buy or rent housing.
That information will be shared with other government agencies, including intelligence units, said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity under State Department rules for briefing reporters.
American officials have become increasingly concerned in recent years that Chinese authorities are using journalists to do government work in the United States, noting that a number of Chinese journalists enter the country on official passports, which are issued by governments to do official business.
But the designation does not carry any journalistic restrictions that would limit where reporters employed by the five outlets can report, including attending State Department briefings or news conferences.
Two State Department officials declined to discuss internal considerations on whether Beijing will retaliate against foreign reporters working in China.
“We’re painfully aware of the very tough operating environment that U.S. and other foreign journalists operate under in China … It’s already the case that freedom of the press is under severe siege in the People’s Republic of China,” one State Department official said.
The five organizations are all part of a huge propaganda apparatus that transmits the Communist Party’s views to China and the world. Democracy advocates have warned about China’s increasingly aggressive attempts to shape the global narrative about its actions at home and abroad.
But the U.S. has struggled to find a way to respond forcefully while protecting free speech.
“Because we are an open, transparent society our tool set is limited as to what we can actually do,” said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In 2018, the Department of Justice Ordered Xinhua and CGTN to register under the Foreign Agents Registration act as part of an effort to combat influence operations.
What the United States has done so far, she said, “doesn’t stop them from sending out the messages they are sending,” Glaser said.
But it does flag the issue for the general public.
“It is alerting people to pay attention to the fact that the message that these organizations give out is one that the Chinese Communist Party wants them to hear, not what we consider real, objective journalism,” Glaser added.
Under leader Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has dramatically stepped up pervasive censorship and state control inside China and extended efforts to reach readers and viewers elsewhere.
“China is trying to promote itself as an international model,” said Sarah Cook, senior research analyst for China at Freedom House and the author of a report, “Beijing’s Global Megaphone,” released in January.
“Beijing has a large toolbox for influencing media around the world and its tactics have been evolving, especially since 2017,” Cook said.
In the United States, these media organizations have Chinese reporters dispatched to provide news about the U.S. to a Chinese audience, like foreign correspondents. But they also have stepped up efforts to reach the American market.
When Xi toured state media outlets in 2016, he told them to “speak for the Party” and “tell China’s story to the world.”
Xi has said repeatedly that “telling stories is the best form of international dissemination” when it comes to telegraphing China’s messages to the world, notes David Bandurski of China Media Project.
By inclusion in cable packages, CGTN America, which is based in Washington, has been able to reach an estimated 30 million households in the United States.
The China Daily, its English-language paper, is available on newsstands in places such as New York and congressional offices in Washington. China Daily has also adopted a practice it calls “borrowing the boat to reach the sea” to place its content in advertorial “China Watch” supplements in newspapers, including The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Xinhua produces copy that is highly favorable to the Chinese government, by disseminating the official view on events like the Hong Kong protests or the detention camps for Muslims in Xinjiang, or stories that are sharply critical of adversaries, with the United States being public enemy number one.
During the Soviet era, Russian news organizations like Tass and Pravda also were designated foreign missions. Several years ago, the Vietnam News Agency got the designation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...2b3ece-5210-11ea-80ce-37a8d4266c09_story.html
