The Trump administration axed Voice of America, and China's state media are delighted
Chinese state media are celebrating President Donald Trump’s move to gut Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded news outlets that push back against authoritarian regimes.
HONG KONG — Chinese state media are celebrating President Donald Trump’s move to gut Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded news outlets that push back against authoritarian regimes.
His executive order Friday dismantling Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other outlets has been criticized as another blow to longstanding U.S. soft power efforts, amid fears that eroding U.S. influence abroad could create opportunities for governments such as China and Russia to promote their values instead.
The government of China, where media is tightly controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, has long criticized coverage by VOA and other U.S. government-funded news outlets. In an editorial Monday, the state-backed nationalist tabloid Global Times called VOA a “lie factory” with an “appalling track record” when it comes to China-related reporting.
From alleged human rights violations in the Chinese region of Xinjiang to the origins of the coronavirus and Chinese military aggression in the South China Sea, “almost every malicious falsehood about China has VOA’s fingerprints all over it,” the editorial read, calling the news outlet a “frontline propaganda tool.”
Technicians working reel-to-reel tape machines at the new Voice of America studios in Washington in 1954.FPG Archive / Getty ImagesVOA, which some Republicans had criticized as being biased against conservatives, has been in Trump’s crosshairs since his first term.
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