By Hannah Cai
April 11, 2023 Updated:
April 11, 2023
On July 11, 2019, Chinese democracy activists in the United States, who came to welcome Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen at her hotel, were physically assaulted by people who identified as "patriots" and carried Chinese red flags. (Huang Xiaotang/The Epoch Times)
The Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) attempts to dictate the global Chinese news narrative by stealthy
but seemingly innocent means. People who emigrate from China overwhelmingly
prefer to receive the news in their native language. Through a complex structure
of domestic and foreign registered news agencies, the CCP-controlled media translates global
news to its advantage and distributes the doctored content with minimal
pushback from governments worldwide.
China’s media spans
multiple entities and is difficult to describe due to frequent reorganizations
and fluctuating department titles. In addition to state-owned news agencies,
multiple independently owned media outlets exist. Despite how some have
operations registered overseas, they all remain loyal to the CCP and the spread
of its doctored news and disinformation.
At the top of China’s
overseas media empire is the CCP’s Ministry of United Front Work Department.
Directly subordinate to this entity is the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office,
which includes China News Service (CNS). The latter is the CCP’s main
propaganda organ targeting overseas Chinese. CNS has offices in many countries,
including the United States. In 1990, CNS personnel were
dispatched to the United States to establish SinoVision (Chinese TV)
television network and The China Press (Qiao Bao) newspaper to
counter negative perceptions of the Chinese regime following the 1989
Tiananmen Square student protests and massacre.
The CCP also indirectly
controls Hong Kong’s international Sing Tao Daily newspaper, Tencent’s WeChat
social media group, and its multiple Qiao Bao internet channels across the
globe.
The proportion of
mainstream American newspapers that appeal to the Chinese immigrant community
is tiny. Former New York City Council member Peter Koo used an example to
illustrate that in the Chinese and Korean gathering areas of the New York City
neighborhood of Flushing if a Western mainstream English newspaper sells one
copy, the local Chinese-language newspapers combined can sell “200 copies a
day,” which is 200 times that of the English-language newspaper.
These factors enable the
CCP to influence American politics in ways that U.S. government officials do
not easily understand. To understand the corrosive and harmful nature of the
CCP on American society, policymakers must understand the Chinese media
environment to better address its interference and impact on the Chinese
American community in the United States.
‘Borrowing a Ship to Sail into the Ocean’
Although it is well known
that China’s Xinhua News Agency is a proxy for the CCP regime, labeling it a
“foreign agent” in the United States is not enough to deter its propaganda
spread. Xinhua does not simply publish the news directly to Chinese readers in
the United States but does so through local partners under content-sharing
agreements. This two-tier distribution strategy allows the CCP’s narrative to
be transmitted to American readers through a third party, shielding Xinhua from
accusations it is distributing official propaganda.
The CCP calls this
strategy “borrowing a ship to sail into the ocean.” In the New York Chinese
community, at least three “ships”— Chinese TV (SinoVision), Qiao Bao, and Sing
Tao Daily— pave the way for disseminating Xinhua News Agency and other CCP
mouthpieces.
Qiao Bao, the only
Chinese-language daily newspaper in the United States that uses simplified
Chinese characters and has a news center in Beijing, was founded in New York in
January 1990. When its president, You Jiang, discussed the newspaper’s
“opportunities and challenges” in a 2015 article, he admitted that the
newspaper’s opportunity lies in being “an important supplement to China’s
overall overseas propaganda,” and the CCP regime increasingly values it.
The Hoover Institution’s 2018 report “Chinese Influence and
American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance” pointed out that Qiao Bao
was established by personnel (Xie Yining) dispatched by the Overseas Chinese
Affairs Office and the China News Service to the United States to reverse the
negative view of the CCP regime after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
Qiao Bao is officially owned by the Asian Culture and Media Group, which also
owns Chinese TV (SinoVision). Chinese TV and Qiao Bao operate in the same
location and belong to the same group.
Strictly speaking, Qiao
Bao and Chinese TV are “ships” the CCP directly created outside China. However,
since Qiao Bao is officially registered in the United States as a company owned
by Americans and operates as such, it has yet to be registered as a foreign
agent by the U.S. State Department.
WeChat Account of Qiao Bao Versus United Front
Work Department of the CCP
The Epoch Times found
that the WeChat account of the New York-based Chinese-language newspaper Qiao
Bao, “nyqiaobao,” is certified and operated by Beijing Zhongxin Chinese
Technology Development Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of China News Service
(CNS). CNS is one of the CCP’s main propaganda organs targeting overseas
Chinese communities.
The core business of
Beijing Zhongxin Chinese Technology Development Co. is to provide technical
information support to overseas Chinese-language media in the United States,
France, Brazil, Australia, and other countries. The support includes content
management systems, multimedia content management, video publishing,
e-newsletter publishing, app development, public opinion investigation, big
data influence analysis, and socialized smart communication systems.
This “full-media public
opinion monitoring system” demonstrates how the CCP integrates and coordinates overseas
Chinese media with official media within China to create a large-scale
surveillance network.
In 2018, the United Front
Work Department’s functions were expanded, and the Overseas Chinese Affairs
Office was incorporated into its leadership. This move directly placed CNS
under the United Front Work Department. Through CNS, the United Front Work
Department owns or controls many overseas Chinese-language media and their
WeChat accounts, including Qiao Bao in the United States.
The overseas Chinese community
is well aware of the nature of Qiao Bao. For a long time, advertisements from
pro-CCP organizations in New York and for the turnover of associations have
only been published in Qiao Bao because the CCP directly controls it.
Advertising in Qiao Bao is meant for the attention of the Chinese consulate and
the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. For example, on May 24, 2020, Qiao Bao
published a full-page advertisement on page B03 supporting the Hong Kong
version of the “National Security Law” by the United Chinese Association of
Eastern U.S. and its 221 affiliated associations.
The CCP’s Control of
its Complex Global Media Apparatus Obscures the Spread of Communist Ideology
(Part 2)
By Hannah Cai
April 11, 2023 Updated:
April 11, 2023
The Chinese Qiao Bao newspaper has many news reports from Xinhua News Agency and China News Service, representing the official voice and viewpoint of the CCP. Besides reporting local news about Chinese community activities, most news pages are directly contracted and transmitted from mainland China.
The alignment of Qiao Bao
with the CCP discourse can be seen in two aspects:
1.
Publishing
similar articles simultaneously. Since Jiang Zemin ordered the crackdown on
Falun Gong in 1999, Qiao Bao has been helping the CCP suppress Falun Gong
abroad. According to statistics, from 1999 to May 2002, Qiao Bao published over
300 anti-Falun Gong articles, almost averaging one piece every three days, with
viewpoints similar to those of the official Chinese media.
2.
Using
the same language and wording. For example, during the Hong Kong
anti-extradition bill protests, Qiao Bao referred to Hong Kong protesters as
“rioters,” “illegal demonstrators,” “outsiders occupying Polytechnic
University,” and “China summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest against Hong
Kong bills.” Also, Qiao Bao repeated the Xinhua News Agency’s phrase of calling
the Russia-Ukraine conflict the “Russia-Ukraine situation.”
Seeking to Shape and Influence US
Decision-Making
The CCP seeks to
influence public opinion in the United States on geopolitical issues. Several
indicators are used to determine whether the media is adopting the CCP
propaganda, including such topics as Falun Gong, pro-democracy groups, Hong
Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjiang, the Republic of China (Taiwan), the CCP, Xi
Jinping, and Sino-American disputes.
For example, on July 11
and 12, 2019, when Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen transited through New York,
Chinese democracy activists in the United States who came to welcome her were
attacked by a group of people who identified themselves as “patriots” and carried
the Chinese national flag. A reporter from The Epoch Times captured video
footage of the assault.
On July 13, the New York
Qiao Bao newspaper reported the incident using the headline “Protests Continue
During Tsai Ing-wen’s Transit,” describing it as “supporters and protesters
erupting into physical conflicts, leading to police intervention.” The
accompanying photo was of Liang Guanjun, the chairman of the United Chinese
Association of Greater New York, holding banners and signs that read “Advocating
for Taiwan Independence Leads to War,” “Do Not Recognize One China, Forget Our
Roots,” and “Tsai Ing-wen Damages US-China Relations.” On the same page was an
article from Xinhua News Agency titled “US Firms Selling Arms to Taiwan Will Be
Sanctioned by China.”
On Aug. 15, 2015, the
CCP’s influence over the overseas media was highlighted in the reporting of
Shen Lyu-shun, the Republic of China (ROC) representative to the United States,
visiting a Taiwanese American community in New York. At the time, a reporter
from the World Journal, a Taiwanese newspaper published in North America,
avoided using the term “Republic of China (ROC)” in their reporting and changed
Representative Shen’s statement to, “the ROC is a country with compassion and
righteousness,” to “the Chinese people are a nation with compassion and
righteousness,” distorting Shen’s original intent and adding that Shen “will
always remember his Chinese identity.” The World Journal published a correction
notice the next day after Shen protested.
Furthermore, after U.S.
President Donald Trump signed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on
November 28, 2019, to support Hong Kong people fleeing persecution, Qiao Bao
published an article the following day titled “The US’s Involvement in Hong
Kong: Five Retaliatory Measures by China” and “Russian Experts: Foreign Forces’
Involvement in Hong Kong Complicates Local Situation.”
Before and after this
incident, pro-CCP Chinese-American organizations made statements in line with
official CCP positions. On November 26 and December 11, 2019, Qiao Bao reported
twice on “227 Chinese-American Organizations in the Eastern United States
Condemning the US Congress’ Passage of the Hong Kong and Xinjiang Bills,”
condemning President Trump for ignoring opposition from the Chinese-American
community and signing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, and stating
that “the U.S. is attempting to split China, so Chinese-Americans and overseas
Chinese firmly support the Chinese government… and firmly oppose anti-China
forces in the U.S.”
In addition, under the
influence of CCP proxies, the Chinese New Year parade organizers in New York’s
Chinatown have consistently refused to allow Falun Gong adherents to
participate.
Falun Gong, also known as
Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice consisting of simple,
slow-moving meditation exercises and teachings based on the principles of
truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It grew in popularity during the
1990s, with 70 million to 100 million adherents in China by the end of the
decade, according to official estimates at the time.
In 2017, Voice of America reported on the
“Falun Gong Case Suffers Setback: California Senator Denounces Chinese
Consulate’s Interference in Legislation.” It mentioned that the California
Senate Judiciary Committee had unanimously passed a bill condemning the CCP’s
ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, but the resolution was
suddenly put in limbo. The source of this action was an email sent by the
Chinese consulate to all members of the California Senate, claiming that the
resolution “will seriously harm the cooperative relations between California
and China, and also seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and the
Chinese community in California.”
This incident reflects
how the Chinese regime exports its persecution policies and attempts to
manipulate the U.S. government into keeping silent about Chinese human rights
violations. It also demonstrates its use of the Chinese people and the
“overseas Chinese community” to intervene in U.S. domestic politics.
Numerous examples of such
activities and propaganda claim to represent “public opinion” in the Chinese
community and seeks to shape and influence U.S. policy to serve the interests
of these people. This is not what the Chinese community wants but what the CCP
wants.
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