News Analysis🔎The @StateDept announced it will force anyone working as #Journalists for #Chinese state media in the US to reveal their identities to authorities and will also force state-run news outlets to reveal their real estate holdings. (Thread👇) theepochtimes.com/state-departme…
These measures could help the US gov't get a stronger grasp on how deeply the #Chinese regime’s #Disinformation arms have penetrated the US media landscape.
This new requirement will place the regime’s main state-run news outlets under the Office of Foreign Missions designation.
This new requirement will place the regime’s main state-run news outlets under the Office of Foreign Missions designation.
Identifying them to the @StateDept as official foreign missions is notably different from a FARA, or the “Foreign Agents Registration Act,” designation.
The action will designate the outlets and their employees as official arms of the #Chinese state.
The action will designate the outlets and their employees as official arms of the #Chinese state.
@StateDept The move was revealed during a @StateDept press briefing and was given on background by 2 department officials.
state.gov/senior-state-d…
state.gov/senior-state-d…
The Chinese media now under the foreign missions designation are @XHNews, @CGTNOfficial, China Radio International (@CRIbrk), @ChinaDaily Distribution Corp, and Hai Tian Development USA, which distributes the @PDChina.
The reasoning for this move was simple.
The reasoning for this move was simple.
“Each one of these entities meets the definition of foreign mission under our Foreign Mission Act, which is to say they are either substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government,” one of the unidentified department officials explained.
It comes less than 2 weeks after a group of 35 Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to #AGBarr requesting that #DOJ investigate @ChinaDaily for “repeated violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).”
Read: hawley.senate.gov/senators-hawle…
Read: hawley.senate.gov/senators-hawle…
@ChinaDaily More significantly, they note, “China Daily has paid over 30 independent newspapers to host four- to eight-page ‘China Watch’ inserts.”
The lawmakers say that @ChinaDaily violated its FARA designation by not providing the required info to #DOJ about these inserts.
The lawmakers say that @ChinaDaily violated its FARA designation by not providing the required info to #DOJ about these inserts.
Among the news outlets that have run @ChinaDaily’s China Watch inserts are @NYTimes, @WSJ, and @WashingtonPost.
The China Watch page on the #NYTimes website states, “This content was paid for and created by China Daily, People’s Republic of China.” nytimes.com/paidpost/china…
The China Watch page on the #NYTimes website states, “This content was paid for and created by China Daily, People’s Republic of China.” nytimes.com/paidpost/china…
@ChinaDaily @nytimes @WSJ @washingtonpost .@ChinaDaily is owned by the Publicity Department of the #CCP, and the request for investigation into it states that while some articles appear harmless…
…others “serve as cover for China’s atrocities, including its crimes against humanity against Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region and its support for the crackdown in Hong Kong.”
The lawmakers point out that, bolstered by the recent designation of @ChinaDaily and other outlets as foreign missions, the Chinese regime has placed heavy importance on controlling foreign perceptions.
That’s included taking strong #Censorship actions.
That’s included taking strong #Censorship actions.
Last year’s “NBA boycott and the arson of The Epoch Times headquarters in Hong Kong show the lengths China will go to protect its international image. And China’s financial commitment to foreign propaganda outlets is the proof in the pudding…
…Propaganda that seeks to obfuscate communist atrocities deserves to be counteracted. But the United States has been puzzlingly slow to respond,” the open letter states.
It’s unclear how the foreign mission designation will affect media that have accepted cash from state-run news outlets, including @ChinaDaily, but its requirement that the outlets reveal their real estate holdings and info about their employees can help lift the veil.
It also will mean that US news outlets that continue their relationships with #Chinese state media will be officially accepting money from a foreign government to publicize #Propaganda and #Disinformation.
/END/ Article by @JoshJPhilipp, a senior investigative reporter with @EpochTimes.
There will be a video up about this article today:
There will be a video up about this article today:
