David Stilwell, assistant secretary of the State Department for East Asia and Pacific affairs, said Monday that China Central Television, the China News Service, the People’s Daily and the Global Times would have to report details of its US staffing. USA The State Department.
“These entities are not independent news organizations; they are effectively controlled by the Chinese Communist Party … also known as the propaganda media,” Stilwell said. “Furthermore … our action will increase transparency in the control of information, not only among its state propaganda media but also among legitimate journalists and news gatherings in China.”
This is the second time that the United States designates the Chinese media as foreign entities, and requires them to submit to the rules and regulations that diplomatic missions cover.
The designations occur when the ties between EE. USA And China has been embittered by trade, the future of Hong Kong, and the coronavirus pandemic. With the general election just over four months away, President Donald Trump’s re-election prospects are uncertain and the global economy in ruins due to the virus, there is a push within the White House and among the President’s Republican allies to blame him to China and emphasize its failure to act quickly and transparently to prevent the virus from spreading to a global pandemic.
“While the Chinese Communist Party has always strictly controlled China’s state news agencies, its control has intensified in recent years, decades, particularly low,” Xi said Stilwell.
“These people are doing more than propaganda, correct, and to understand exactly what that is, we have to know who they are. It is about understanding what is happening within their own country; we are a free nation,” Stilwell added.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry criticized the United States for its “political repression of the Chinese media” and argued that it would undermine its reporting activities, speaking during a regular briefing on Tuesday.
“It also further exposed the hypocrisy of the so-called freedom of the press and of expression presumed by the United States,” said Zhao Lijian, a ministry spokesman. “We strongly urge the United States to abandon the Cold War mentality, ideological biases, and immediately stop and correct this practice that hurts both sides.”
China has expelled journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
When asked about the effectiveness of this effort, given China’s retaliation for expelling American journalists the last time the State Department took this measure, Stilwell said: “The Chinese government does what it does. It cannot be said that they’re doing it specifically because we’re doing it to them. It’s just an excuse. “
While Stilwell and State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus emphasized the lack of freedom in the Chinese media, comparing it favorably with the US media, Ortagus did not allow a question about Bolton’s book, which also paints Trump as trying to earn Xi’s favor.
CNN’s Vivian Salama contributed to this report.
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