The US Government Needs to Do More to Purge Media With Ties to the CCP (Part 1)

The Biden administration is trying to ban the TikTok video hosting service, which is widely prevalent among young people in the United States. Concerns have arisen about these services as half of all U.S. states no longer allow TikTok to be on government devices. The issue is whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses TikTok to harvest user data and spread communist ideology. If this is happening, simply banning TikTok alone will not deter the CCP since its strategy to influence people uses multiple media channels. Suppose the United States is serious about protecting its citizens from the CCP. In that case, it should further scrutinize WeChat plus multiple pro-CCP media outlets and TV networks serving the entire Chinese community throughout the country, which are the leading promoters of Beijing’s views.

Until recently, the CCP brazenly used its state-owned media outlets and loyal overseas media partners to exploit America’s openness with doctored news to deflect criticism, advance the CCP narrative and stir-up controversy against the United States. When this loophole in manipulating the news became apparent, the U.S. government imposed “foreign mission” status on fifteen of China’s state-run media outlets in the United States in 2020.

Under the U.S. Foreign Missions Act, all of China’s state-run media outlets in the United States should be designated as “foreign missions,” Employees who work there should be registered as “foreign agents,” just as employees of foreign embassies are.

The designations were made in three batches that included Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television, China News Service, People’s Daily, Global Times, Economic Daily, and others.

Subsequently, in 2021, when a Chinese citizen purchased Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily newspaper, he was forced to register as a “foreign agent” with the U.S. Department of Justice. Yet, Chinese TV and Qiao Bao, established in New York, and staffed and funded by China News Service, have never been labeled as such.

Although China’s state-run media outlets may not operate in an American Chinese-language community, their content is still promoted in those markets through unofficial China media partners like Chinese TV, Qiao Bao, and Sing Tao Daily. These media partners promote the CCP’s perspectives and views, especially when attempting to whitewash large-scale human rights violations.

Another media loophole the CCP uses to spread its propaganda is the U.S. government not regulating internet streaming services like OTT/IPTV. For example, Chinese residents in New York can pay $180 for a small internet streaming receiver to access over 100 Chinese channels, including more than 12 from the China Central TV station.

These media are like a swarm of craft flying under the radar, not triggering alarms like other types of warfare, such as data, cyber, intelligence, and political warfare. However, they remain highly successful in influencing and manipulating Chinese Americans and exporting the CCP’s censorship system and narrative to the world.

The CCP Seeks to ‘Build a New World Media Order’

Over the past decade, the CCP has surpassed the United States by using multiple media channels to influence and manipulate people in the Chinese community. Rather than stick to traditional media, the CCP expanded its communication channels with streaming television and the internet and mastered social media and messaging with WeChat.

CCP leader Xi Jinping has spoken about China’s media convergence strategies on several occasions, stating that “We should fully utilize new technologies and new applications to innovate media communication methods and seize the high ground of information dissemination” and “Wherever readers and audiences are, our propaganda and reports should reach there, and our efforts and focus in ideological work should be placed there.”

Early insight into this strategy was communicated during a 2015 conference by He Yafei, China’s Deputy Director of its Overseas Affairs Office. He said, “The world is entering a transition period between the old and new international order … to do a good job of China’s overseas communication work, we must concentrate our advantages and break through the Western media’s blockade.”

He proposed using the trend toward globalism and creating “Chinese stories” to integrate Chinese ideas and concepts with internationally recognized discourse. The idea, He said, is to “construct China’s characteristic values and its discourse system,” for which they “need to build multi-language websites, online radio and streaming TV stations, mobile radio and TV apps, and app news terminal services to form an overseas communication pattern.” In short, the aim is to “raise the red flag all over the world.”

The CCP’s media presence in the United States is massive. For example, North America has several large over-the-top (OTT) internet TV platforms, including KyLin TV, Great Wall Platform, iTalkBB, and Charming China. OTT refers to content and services set up on the internet for users to access, typically through a box that can replace cable TV and be used with WiFi, with no monthly subscription fee.

In China, the OTT-TV industry is a heavily regulated sector, similar to a military-restricted zone, while in the United States, it is wide open. These platforms were first deployed in 2006 and are now quite popular among the Chinese community. They carry the main official channels of the CCP and hundreds of mainland Chinese TV stations. Some platforms have also developed mobile apps, such as the KyLin TV app for iPad, iTalkBB TV app, and at least 10 similar apps available on the Apple Store.

Another example is the many internet networks claiming to provide “all-in-one” Chinese information services for communities across the United States. The largest include the New York Chinese Information Network (NYChinaRen.com), the Los Angeles Chinese Information Network (ChineseInLA.com), the San Francisco Bay Area Chinese Information Network (ChineseInSFBay.com), and the Vancouver Chinese Information Network (ChineseInVan.com). The headquarters for these networks are not in the United States but in Tianjin, China. Their websites are operated by Tianjin Luoxun Network Technology Co., Ltd., while Tianjin Xiwei Network Technology Co., Ltd operates WeChat, FaceBook, email, and cell phone app accounts.

When customers open these Chinese Information Networks, they see 17 channels serving large Chinese communities in cities outside China, from Washington D.C. to Sydney and from Las Vegas to Seattle. Customers in those cities may not realize the channel’s content is censored in China. They translate and summarize materials produced by other media outlets and specifically target people from mainland China and Hong Kong who can read simplified Chinese characters so they can continue brainwashing them.

The extent to which the CCP manipulates the news worldwide can be seen on Baidu when searching for “New York Chinese Information Network Editor-in-Chief Zhan Juan.” This search reveals how China’s overseas and mainland media outlets like Observer, Tencent, Sohu, and Phoenix all share traffic and seamlessly link articles using simplified Chinese characters.

The strategy used by the CCP to secretly brainwash foreigners is to acquire media outlets abroad and buy insert advertising. China routinely manipulating the news content it owns should be concerning to the many Americans who enjoy reading The News Break, a widely used English news app and information aggregation platform owned by China’s ByteDance, which also owns TikTok.

In 2011, Li Congjun, the former president of Xinhua News Agency, wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal titled “Building a New World Media Order.” Li campaigned for “new rules and order” in how information traditionally flows from “West to East” and from “developed to developing” countries. He argued the old rules were outdated and did not reflect how the emerging political and economic developments occurring in the East could just as easily influence the West.

When Li’s editorial was released, many people believed that due to the CCP’s lack of credibility, it would be impossible for China to “build a new world media order.” People jokingly questioned, “How is this feasible if objective reporters are replaced with CCP mouthpieces?”

It’s been over a decade since Li published his editorial, and the CCP has made strides in modifying how the rest of the world views China. The outside world finally sees the “scope and ambition” of the CCP’s proposed media new world order.