Thread by @nataliegwinters

REVEALED: Here Are the Mainstream Journalists on China’s Payroll 🚨

I exclusively uncovered the identities of prominent U.S. journalists flown to China by a CCP-linked influence operation seeking “favorable coverage” and “positive messages” about Beijing. 🧵

The names include:

- Ezra Klein, New York Times columnist
- Matthew Yglesias, Vox co-founder
- Ronald Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst
- Bradford Plumer, New York Times reporter
- Marjorie Miller, former Associated Press vice president

Also identified:

- Steve Clemons, former The Hill editor-at-large
- David Rohde, MS NOW senior national security reporter
- Jonathan Alter, NBC News and MSNBC political analyst
- David Sweeney, former NPR managing editor
- Daniel Gross, former Yahoo Finance columnist

Also on the roster:

- Marilyn Geewax, former NPR senior editor
- Kathleen Deveny, former Newsweek editor
- Tom Omestad, former U.S. News & World Report correspondent
- Steve Chapman, former Chicago Tribune columnist
- Bruce Stokes, former National Journal correspondent

The list continues:

- Craig Gilbert, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Washington bureau chief
- Tony Semerad, Salt Lake Tribune reporter
- Shikha Dalmia, former The Week columnist
- Jonathan Broder, former Newsweek senior writer

Also identified:

- Cristi Kempf, former Chicago Tribune associate managing editor
- Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times deputy editorial page editor
- Julian Pecquet, former Foreign Affairs reporter

Trip organizer CUSEF was founded by Tung Chee-hwa, a former senior official in the CCP’s United Front system, the influence apparatus Beijing uses to cultivate foreign elites and shape institutions outside China.

A bipartisan congressional report says the United Front works to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition” to the CCP.

American media was not incidental to the strategy. It was a target.

The access went far beyond conference rooms.

American journalists were taken on curated tours through China, including visits to Chinese military bases, by the same network seeking favorable coverage.

Then came the coverage.

Shikha Dalmia published “China Bashing is for Losers.”

Bradford Plumer praised Beijing’s climate agenda.

Bruce Stokes warned that economic “decoupling” from China would “backfire.”

Catherine Rampell repeatedly attacked Trump’s China policies.

One dispatch from her CUSEF-funded trip amplified Chinese officials portraying America as the aggressor and urged Washington to abandon its “zero-sum-game attitude” toward Beijing.

David Rohde produced one of the clearest examples after a CUSEF-organized trip:

“The Chinese state has played a central role in creating, supporting and expanding businesses here.”

Rohde continued:

“Those successes show that, for all the attacks from American politicians on Chinese currency manipulation, American companies can find profits in China.”

Then came the verdict on American industry:

“Americans, meanwhile, should accept that large-scale manufacturing will never return to the United States.”

Rohde urged American companies to profit from China’s rise and dismissed political objections in Washington as “ideological babble.”

Matthew Yglesias joked about wanting to “give Party flunkies notes” on improving their “propaganda.”

Ezra Klein later credited China with buying America time during COVID.

Steve Chapman attacked Trump’s trade policies and published a now-deleted column making “the case for buying U.S. Olympic outfits from China.”

Ronald Brownstein opposed Trump’s confrontation with Beijing.

Former NPR editor Marilyn Geewax later became a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Xi Jinping’s alma mater and one of China’s most politically connected institutions.

The network also reached Joe Biden’s orbit.

Bruce Stokes is married to Wendy Sherman, who became Biden’s deputy secretary of state and one of the administration’s most powerful foreign-policy officials.

The public saw the articles.

It did not see the CCP-linked influence operation behind them.

Subscribe for free to help expose what the establishment is counting on you never finding out about. ⬇️

nataliegwinters.substack.com