Chinese state-run media paid US newspapers $19 million for advertising, printing
DHARAMSALA, 9 June: One of China’s main propaganda outlets has paid American newspapers nearly $19 million for advertising and printing expenses over the past four years, the Daily Caller reported citing documents filed with the Justice Department.
China Daily, a Chinese state-run English-language newspaper “has paid more than $4.6 million to The Washington Post and nearly $6 million to The Wall Street Journal since November 2016,” the report said.
The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal “have published paid supplements that China Daily produces called “China Watch,” the report said and added that “the inserts are designed to look like real news articles, though they often contain a pro-Beijing spin on contemporary news events.”
The report noted that One insert from September 2018 touted an initiative pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping with the headline: “Belt and Road aligns with African nations,” and that the same insert ran a story titled “Tariffs to take toll on U.S. homebuyers” that asserted that U.S. tariffs on Chinese lumber would raise the cost of building homes in the United States.
Additionally, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouth piece has also paid for advertising in several other newspapers: The New York Times ($50,000), Foreign Policy ($240,000), The Des Moines Register ($34,600), CQ-Roll Call ($76,000) and The Los Angeles Times $657,523 for printing services.
“It spent a total of $11,002,628 on advertising in U.S. newspapers, and another $265,822 on advertising with Twitter.”
The report listed The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle and The Boston Globe are all listed as clients of China Daily while adding that the propaganda outlet has further paid out more than $7.6 million to newspapers and printing companies for its newspaper for U.S.-based readers.
The said amount was disclosed by the China Daily as its expenditures for the period between November 2016 and April 2020 as mandated by the The Justice Department.
While Rights groups and activists have long warned of Beijing’s “attempts to push propaganda through American news outlets, Freedom House and the Hoover Institution have both drawn attention to China Daily’s paid inserts in reports on the Chinese government’s efforts to influence the media.”
Earlier in February, the US announced that it will treat five major Chinese media companies; Xinhua, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily and People’s Daily as extensions of Beijing’s government and made it prerequisite of them to comply with rules governing foreign embassies and consulates.
