Trade war negotiation impasse to Fox-CCTV trade war debate
DHARAMSALA, 30 May: While the US-China trade war has reached an impasse, a Chinese state TV anchor and a host of from Fox Business appeared for a head to head in a live televised debate on the U.S.-China trade war.
The debate began with Liu Xin, the anchor of China’s state-run English Channel China Global Television Network correcting Trish Regan, a host on Fox Business Network who introduced her as being part of the Chinese Communist Party.
“This is on the record, so please don’t assume that I’m a member and I don’t speak for the Communist party of China. Here today I’m only speaking for myself, Liu Xin, a journalist working for CGTN.” Liu said.
“Well, CGTN is part of CCP,” Trish shot back. CGTN is the international arm of China’s state-run broadcaster, China Central Television (CCTV).
The duo then debated on trade negotiations, intellectual property, tariffs, and technology transfer in what was dubbed as a historic debate but marred with lags in satellite connection and was disappointingly short on substance according to Quartz.com
The anchors agreed to debate after Liu called Regan’s coverage on Trade War as emotion and accusation, supported with little substance and Regan proposed for an “honest debate” on US-China relations which the former accepted.
Meanwhile, the debate was not broadcasted on Chinese airwaves and online as promised.
The CCP having agreed to air it, reportedly changed their minds just hours before the debate was set to air on May 29 evening, reports the Epoch Times.
CGTN claimed that it had to cancel its planned live broadcasting due to copyright issues, the report said and added that at the same time, the regime started to delete related online posts, banned comments about the scheduled debate as its censorship mechanism started working in full force.
The report further said that Chinese netizens have complained about the change and urged for the right to watch the live debate.
“Applying for a copyright license is that difficult? It must be an excuse,” Yu Guoming, executive dean of Journalism and Communication School at Beijing Normal University said in a Weibo post, China’s Twitter-like social media platform questioning the claim that CGTN was unable to obtain the copyright to broadcast.
“The content in the debate can’t be predetermined. The Fox Business anchor could get emotional and say something that [the Chinese regime believes] shouldn’t be said. Of course, this can’t be a live broadcast. The recorded video will probably have to pass censorship before publishing.”
“How come Xinhua [another state-run media] doesn’t have the money to pay for the copyright?” a Chinese netizen has questioned in another Weibo post that has since been deleted.
Trish Regan has joined Fox Business as an anchor in 2015 and she is the host of Trish Regan Primetime.
Liu Xin anchors The Point, a prime-time current affairs show, and has been working with CCTV since 1997.
