Mukund Patel
Chicago: Tightening more screws on Beijing, the US State Department has designated six more Chinese media companies as foreign missions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday.
“We’re pushing back on the Chinese communist propaganda efforts here at home, too. Today I’m announcing the State Department is designating the U.S. operations of six China-based media companies as foreign missions, he said at a press briefing.
“They are all substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government. We’re not placing any restrictions on what these outlets can publish in the United States. We simply want to ensure that American people, consumers of information, can differentiate between news written by a free press and propaganda distributed by the Chinese Communist Party itself. They’re not the same thing.”
“I’d also like to note last week President Trump released the National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies. It outlines fundamentally how the United States will maintain global leadership in conventional weapons, artificial intelligence, semiconductor, and space technologies.”
“Our competitive edge in each of these areas is all the more important as the Chinese Communist Party and Russia seek to supplant America as the leader in these fields,” Pompeo said.
In a statement, State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said, “Pursuant to authorities under the Foreign Missions Act, the State Department is issuing today a new determination that designates the U.S. operations of Yicai Global, Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News, Social Sciences in China Press, Beijing Review, and Economic Daily as foreign missions.
These six entities all meet the definition of a foreign mission under the Foreign Missions Act in that they are “substantially owned or effectively controlled” by a foreign government. In this case, they are effectively controlled by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The decision to designate these entities does not place any restrictions on what these organizations may publish in the United States. It simply recognizes them for what they are – PRC-controlled propaganda outlets.
“Entities designated as foreign missions must adhere to certain requirements that increase transparency relating to their associated government’s media activities in the United States. Our goal is to protect the freedom of press in the United States, and ensure the American people know whether their news is coming from the free press or from a malign foreign government.
Transparency isn’t threatening to those who value truth, he added.
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