US-China Relations - 46. page

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed to adopt a new rule that will require that, if a foreign government sponsors any content in a TV or radio station, the station must make a public disclosure.

The decision was announced on Monday October 26. The Commission’s statement said, “the American people deserve to know when a foreign government has paid for programming, or furnished it for free, so that viewers and listeners can better evaluate the value and accuracy of such programming.”

The new rule “requires a specific disclosure at the time of broadcast if a foreign governmental entity has paid a radio or television station, directly or indirectly, to air material, or if such an entity has provided the programming to the station free of charge as an inducement to broadcast the material.” While the Commission’s current rules require a sponsorship identification when a station has been compensated for airing particular material, the rules require disclosure of the sponsor’s name and usually do not require that a station determine whether the source of the programming is in fact a foreign government or mandate that the connection to a foreign government is disclosed to the public at the time of broadcast.

Jessica Rosenworcel, an FCC commissioner, said in her written statement, “Right now, we are awash in reports that foreign actors are attempting to influence our political process and democratic elections in the United States. We also know that foreign entities are purchasing time on broadcast stations in markets across the country, including Russian government-sponsored programming right here in our nation’s capital. But it’s mindboggling that the FCC has yet to update its policies … to ensure that the public knows when foreign actors who may wish to do us harm are paying to access our airwaves and influence our citizens.”

In September, the FCC’s chair Ajit Pai proposed rules to ensure transparency of foreign government sponsored broadcast content. He said, “with some station content coming from the likes of China and Russia, it is time to update our rules and shed more sunlight on these practices.”

“Today we begin to fix this situation. We propose to adopt specific disclosure requirements for broadcast programming that is paid for or provided by a foreign government or its representative. This is about basic transparency and it frankly shouldn’t have taken us so long.” said Rosenworcel.

Source: FCC, October 26, 2020
https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-seeks-require-id-foreign-government-sponsored-programming

An internal document that Epoch Times recently obtained shows that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China as “hostile forces” “to contain and to block.”

The document that the Foreign Affairs Bureau of Leizhou City, Guangdong Province, issued on April 5, 2018, was titled, The “Working Plan for Guarding against and Combating Hostile Forces’ Infiltration and Destructive Activities in order to Maintain Political Security.”

The plan identifies the focus of “preventing and combating hostile forces” from the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China and lists the details of the methods.

According to the internal documents, the priority is to “prevent the penetration of and destruction by the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China.”

The “objective is to counteract the internalization, personalization, and agency of the U.S. and Western embassies and consulates in China in their infiltration activities and to block them effectively from communicating with key political persons, lawyers, ‘public intellectuals,’ ’rights defenders and specific interest groups,’ and to sever their ties and break their network, in order to compress their penetration space, reduce their penetration energy, and defeat their penetration scheme.”

The Leizhou Foreign Affairs Bureau listed several implementation measures. “Cut off any connections between the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China and with key [Chinese] figures in the country. Strengthen intelligence and early warnings, find out about the infiltration activities of the U.S. and other Western consulates in Guangzhou in a timely manner and use various methods such as reminders, warnings, striking, and other methods to discourage relevant [Chinese] figures from participating in the activities to such an extent that the U.S. and other Western consulates in Guangzhou ‘cannot connect, cannot enter and cannot make things happen.’”

In addition to these measures, the Foreign Affairs Bureau also directed “to establish a database of key personnel of the U.S. and other Western embassies and consulates in China. Use big data to collect background information about activities and the whereabouts of relevant personnel [diplomats].”

Source: Epoch Times, October 16, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/10/12/n12471193.htm

Well-known Chinese news site Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) recently reported that the previous U.S. strategy of peacefully transforming China has apparently failed, so now the United States has started to worry that the Chinese scholars and students can be used as weapons against the U.S. As part of the Trump administration’s overall Chinese strategy, the U.S. government has been speeding up its radical process of delinking with China. Due to the pandemic and the change of Chinese students’ choice of destination, as well as the changes in U.S. policies, this June’s number of U.S. student visas granted to Chinese students was eight, and another eight Chinese applicants were granted visiting scholar visas. The same numbers in June of 2019 were 34,001 and 5,736, respectively. With the new restrictions imposed on the academic exchanges between China and the U.S., the opportunities for the United States to better understand the complex Chinese society will significantly decline. If Washington continues its policies, it will lose the capabilities to influence China in many areas like the economy, the financial system, public health, environmental protection, education and cultural exchanges.

Source: Sina, October 16, 2020
https://finance.sina.com.cn/wm/2020-10-16/doc-iiznctkc5875586.shtml

TOEFL, the Test of English as Foreign Language, is an important test for foreign students to take in order to study in the universities in the U.S. China’s official TOEFL test site recently opened the first wave of registration for the 2021 TOEFL test. People were shocked to find out that the slots from January to August for test centers in Beijing and Shanghai were gone in the first 5 minutes. However, later on, the China TOEFL site assured the test takers that more seats would be released later on every Wednesday and Friday.

Chinese netizens commented that the media inside of China constantly attack the U.S. but the TOEFL test slots were still taken in the first 5 minutes. Many Chinese high ranking officials, diplomats or spokesperson send their daughters and sons to study in the U.S. People joked that it is because “Slandering America is their job but living in America is their life.”

Source: Liberty Times Net, October 17, 2020
https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3324266

The local public security bureau officers questioned a Chinese citizen from Chongqing city for placing an online order for American flags.

On October 2, after President Trump tested positive for COVID 19, a group of Chinese citizens in Chongqing city wished to express their support for Trump. They planned to have a gathering with American flags in the background, take pictures, and then post them on the Internet. On October 6, the officers from the local public security bureau questioned Huang Yang, who was in charge of ordering the American flags, for four hours. They asked Huang about ordering American flags and threatened him. It was obvious that the public security bureau taped the conversation of Huang Yang with his friends and that was how they learned about the information. Huang challenged the officers and asked why the authorities were scared when he only placed an online order for American flags. He wondered which law he violated. Some local residents who knew about the story joked that for the evil CCP regime, the American flags are talisman that will drive away any ghosts. They thought, “Since they are afraid, why don’t we buy more?”

Source: 6do.news, October 10, 2020
https://6do.news/article/3272651-61

On October 2, following the news that President Trump and the first Lady tested positive for COVID 19, China’s official Youth League Weibo account organized a live video group chat session titled, “The Virus Finally Found the Person who Understands it the Best” and encouraged the followers to post comments that are related to the word “懂” (“understand”). The live chat used a popular Chinese song titled, “He doesn’t know” to insinuate that Trump doesn’t know China. Trump often says that no one understands China better than he does, so those pro-CCP youths in China have given him the nick name, “King of Understanding” because of it. During the session, there were comments that cheered the news, but there were also comments criticizing the youth league for hosting the chat session. At the same time, the official Weibo account of the Political and Legal Committee also joined the live video chat.

In a 51 second video, a number of comments had the word “understand” in it. There were also people posting comments such as “(Trump contracting COVID 19 is) China’s National Day gift.” Another comment was, “It’s okay, two more bottles of disinfectant please.” At the same time, people posted complaints about the live video comment session. One person wrote, “I hope you can understand the meaning of these things that the CCP Youth League has issued.” “Your cheer on this side of the ocean gave voters on the other side of the ocean a chance to share the same hatred, stupid as a pig” “Once again it challenged the bottom line of my understanding of human moral values.”

Since the news of Trump contracting COVID 19 first appeared, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs basically repeated diplomatic rhetoric. The Ministry openly cheered about the news, also fearing that it would further harm Sino-US relations. So the youth league hosting a live video group chat session became a channel to guide the opinion of the younger generation and let the pro-CCP youths express their hatred against the U.S. The Youth League’s Weibo and Zhihu accounts have gained popularity among young people in China since they use the internet pop culture. They have become a public opinion tool for the CCP to disseminate its propaganda information targeting the country’s youth.

Source: Epoch Times, October 5, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/10/5/n12454878.htm