Outlets including CNN, The NY Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and MANY more participated in private dinners and sponsored trips with a Chinese Communist Party-funded group seeking “favorable coverage” and “positive messages” regarding China.⬇️https://t.co/8zXC14SvHh
— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) December 29, 2020
Personnel from mainstream Western media outlets have accepted both private dinners and sponsored trips to China from a group whose main objective it is to garner favorable coverage for the Chinese Communist Party.
The list of media outlets taking part in the outings include: CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Forbes, the Financial Times, Newsweek, Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC News, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, AFP, TIME magazine, LA Times, The Hill, BBC, and The Atlantic.
The revelations have been made in the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings detailing the activity of the China–United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF).
The National Pulse reports:
CUSEF is a Chinese Communist Party-funded initiative founded by Tung Chee Hwa. The group also targets American universities with offers to fund policy research, high-level dialogues, and exchange programs.
Tung also serves as Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), identified by the U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission as a key component of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Work Front.
The effort, according to the U.S. government report, aims to “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party.”
“The United Front strategy uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” it continues.
This strategy appears to have been deployed in conjunction with outlets such as CNN, New York Times, and the Washington Post.
A 2011 FARA filing highlighted by Axios detailed CUSEF’s agreement with American lobbying firm BLJ. It outlines how CUSEF set out to “effectively disseminate positive messages to the media, key influencers and opinion leaders, and the general public” regarding China.
To do so, CUSEF targeted working journalists and journalist students:
In order to develop favorable coverage in key national media, BLJ will continue to organize and staff “familiarization trips” to China. This includes recruiting top journalists to travel to China, selected for effectiveness and opportunities for favorable coverage.