Thread by @JMichaelWaller

1) This press coverage from @AP's Beijing bureau doesn't make sense.

The AP reporter has the Twitter handle @ComradeJoeMcD. He's been with the Associated Press in China for more than 22 years, so he seems to behave like a good comrade. @AP_Politics apnews.com/f204b8b0f6ca6e…

2) @ComradeJoeMcD of @AP's Beijing bureau is a business reporter. He barely covers politics.

Comrade Joe has never written about #GuoWengui before. His profile of Guo, with the hook being the arrest of Steve Bannon, contains glaring omissions. @AP_Politics

3) @ComradeJoeMcD omits Guo's connections to China's MSS secret police.

He does say "The former deputy chief of the Chinese intelligence agency, Ma Jian, was convicted in December 2018 of taking bribes to help Guo," but omits allegations in US that Guo is a spy. @AP_Politics

4) Based for 22 years in China, @ComradeJoeMcD never covered #GuoWengui when Guo did high-profile business inside China, and never reported on the Wall Street Journal's coverage that Guo was "accused of spying for Beijing."
wsj.com/articles/chine…

5) @ComradeJoeMcD said that a senior Chinese intelligence official was "close to Guo," but did not explore Guo's larger relationship with the MSS secret service, even though Guo spoke about it publicly in the US. This follows the CCP line to preserve the MSS image. @AP_Politics

6) Bannon has not been charged with anything relating to #GuoWengui.

So why did @ComradeJoeMcD suddenly write about Guo as an "irritant" to the Communist Party, as if it's news?
@AP_Politics

7) Why, for that matter, does the world-class Associated Press allow its business correspondent to write from Beijing and call himself "comrade"? @ComradeJoeMcD @AP_Politics @AP

8) @ComradeJoeMcD says nothing about the August 19 Wall Street Journal report that #GuoWengui himself is under FBI investigation.

There is no way a top AP business reporter would credibly omit this about the subject of his story. @AP_Politics wsj.com/articles/fundr…

9) AP disserves its readers by having @ComradeJoeMcD suddenly cover #GuoWengui after years of silence, and from Beijing where he is subject to regime incentives.

The fact that the CCP has let Comrade Joe stay in China for 22 years prompts skeptics to ask "why." @AP_Politics

10) WSJ reported on July 8/9 that #GuoWengui was subject of an FBI "national security" investigation. The story appeared globally in English and in the WSJ's Chinese edition in Mandarin.

Yet @ComradeJoeMcD didn't fit that important fact into his Guo profile. @AP_Politics