US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 14 slashing the funding of several federal agencies, including the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Over the following days, various media outlets reported that major US government-funded news outlets, including Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe were effectively shut down, with their employees put on administrative leave as a result of the executive order.
On social media, the president of one of the affected broadcasters bluntly stated that this executive decision will be celebrated by America’s adversaries like China, Iran and Russia. He’s only partially correct in this statement (which is already an improvement over most of his organization’s news content). We don’t consider this matter so important as to be worth celebrating, yet we definitely won’t be saddened if those media outlets are gone for good — a sentiment we believe to be shared by all countries that have been harmed by the US’ subversive activities and by people around the world fed up with American propaganda. The closure of these outlets also symbolizes the moral bankruptcy of the hypocritical double standards they practice under the guise of “press freedom”.
First and foremost, it must be clarified that VOA and other broadcasters funded by the USAGM are not regular news agencies, but propaganda organs funded and controlled by the US government. They don’t provide objective and balanced news and information as they shamelessly claim, but spread misinformation that serves to smear and destabilize countries unwilling to be subjugated by US hegemony. Take VOA, for example: Founded during World War II, it was gradually transformed into an anticommunist propaganda organ once the Cold War was initiated as part of the US’ efforts to compete with the Soviet Union for global dominance. Its operations expanded further after the Cold War and continued to serve US hegemony globally. Whenever and wherever Washington wanted to topple an “unfriendly” government or sow chaos in a foreign country, VOA led the offensive by spreading unfavorable information, manipulating public opinion and inciting discontent against that country. Several countries, like Russia, Turkiye and Iran have banned VOA after being subjected to its devious practices. It’s especially worth noting and ironic that VOA wasn’t even allowed to broadcast to US citizens prior to 2013, as the US government feared that Americans would be harmed by its own propaganda.
Hong Kong has long been a focal point of Washington’s attempt to contain and destabilize China, and thus has been a major target of VOA’s influence campaigns. During the 2019-20 social unrest, VOA deployed correspondents on the ground and extensively covered the events in a biased manner. Faithfully serving Washington’s “color revolution” objective, it spared no expense in glorifying the rioters, documenting their words and propagating their demands, while conveniently ignoring all the violence and disruption they caused; it intentionally incited hatred toward the Hong Kong Police Force, whose dutiful officers worked day and night to restore law and order, by blatantly vilifying their law enforcement actions. As soon as the National Security Law for Hong Kong was promulgated, VOA resorted to fearmongering without delay, peddling scenarios about how the law would damage Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center. After many rioters and organizers fled Hong Kong following the failure of the “black-clad revolution”, VOA continued to provide them with a platform to spread lies and promote their political agenda. People who wish Hong Kong well have every reason to be glad if VOA ceases to function.
While we rightfully consider this recent development to be a positive step toward a more objective and transparent media landscape in Hong Kong and beyond, there is no reason to assume Washington will halt its misinformation and infiltration campaign around the world. Trump has made it clear that he intends to cement US hegemony by whatever means possible, misinformation included. His attack on VOA and other US government-funded agencies is in a sense part of a domestic power struggle to purge the federal government of his political opponents. Once Trump is done cleaning house, we can expect even more blatant lies and smears aimed at discrediting his adversaries, perhaps from a reorganized VOA headed by one of his close associates. Nevertheless, the times are long gone when a radio set was the only source of information for an entire community, and it’s getting increasingly difficult for the likes of VOA to ensure their lies are believed. Earlier this year, an imminent ban on TikTok in the US prompted millions of American netizens to pour onto Chinese social media platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu), and many soon furiously found out that their government had been constantly lying to them about the realities of China. In the face of such vibrant and open exchanges directly between two peoples, VOA’s Cold War-style propaganda appears utterly obsolete. It would perhaps be best to just shut it down for good.
The author is a political analyst at the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
