There are many Chinese government propaganda news outlets in the United States and around the world, which are under direct control by the CCP. Those include CCTV, CGTN, Global Times, People’s Daily, etc. Among them, CGTN America has been actively engaging propaganda campaigns in the US and on the Internet via social media.
CGTN America—formerly known as CCTV America——is the Washington, D.C., bureau of the China Global Television Network. CGTN America, based in Washington, is part of the international arm of China Central Television, Beijing’s main domestic propaganda organ.
When it comes to anything ‘sensitive’, CCTV is not different from how the Korean Central Television (KCTV) operates in North Korea. It is common sense that we cannot allow KCTV to have an official account on YouTube. Yet, communist China’s propaganda news outlets such as CGTN and other state-controlled news agencies are still allowed to have official channels on YouTube, Facebook, etc., all of which are banned in China and residents in China get prison sentences for merely visiting any of those social media via VPN.
In 2018, CGTN made the filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, at the urging of the Justice Department. FARA requires those doing publicity work for foreign-controlled groups to submit government disclosures. CGTN runs a typical newsroom except when it comes to stories about China, said four current and former employees, who asked for anonymity to protect their careers.
“Reporting China’s policy positions and presenting them in a positive light are primary reasons for CGTN’s existence,” said the Justice Department in a December letter. “CGTN wouldn’t exist or have any significant funding if it weren’t for the Chinese government,” said Sarah Cook, a senior analyst for East Asia at Freedom House, a pro-democracy research group in the United States.
The Communist regime in China has recently started another round of propaganda campaigns filled with false claims and disinformation. This came right after the leaking of CPP’s internal classified documents about concentration camps and mass incarceration of up to 3 million Uyghurs. The US House has passed the UIGHUR Act bill on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2019. Immediately, the Global Times English and CGTN started posting counter statements protesting against the UIGHUR Act of 2019.
Once again, CCP is trying to justify their crimes against humanity by the so-called “counter-terrorism” campaign. After the communist government came universal condemnation on its concentration camps and ruthless crackdown on the entire Uyghur nation, CCP’s first reaction was to flood the internet with disinformation and government propaganda aimed at deceiving people around the world.
After the Hong Kong bill passed the U.S. House on November 20, the CCTV and Peoples’ Daily Chinese language channels have posted a photo on their official Facebook pages urging people to go “destroy” the U.S. Capitol Building. The photos were deleted after a while, but screenshots of photos were already saved by some people on the internet. The screenshots show that each gathered 1000 likes before they were removed from official Facebook pages of CGTN (Chinese) and Peoples’ Daily (overseas).
So why should Communist China’s propaganda news outlets get a green-pass in the US and other democratic countries for CCP’s disinformation campaign? It is the biggest irony of the century that all of those social media apps and websites are all banned for Chinese people who are living under CCP’s rule. However, Chinese diplomats, propaganda news organizations and other Chinese government-affiliated organizations all have official accounts with the same banned social media platforms. All of those platforms are illegal for Chinese people to visit but it is just “utterly normal” for the CCP and its mouthpieces to use. In many cases, it has been even reported that Twitter, Facebook, etc. have been paid by the CCP to spread the Communist regime’s false propaganda and disinformation.
Source 1: Freedom and the Media: A Downward Spiral
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-media/freedom-media-2019
Source 2: China paid Facebook and Twitter to help spread anti-Muslim propaganda
Source 3: Facebook and Twitter profit from Chinese propaganda
https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/facebook-twitter-china.php
Source 4: The Complete List of Blocked Websites in China & How to Access Them
https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/the-complete-list-of-blocked-websites-in-china-how-to-access-them/
Source 5: Live From America’s Capital, a TV Station Run by China’s Communist Party
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/business/cctv-china-usa-propaganda.html?ref=oembed
Source 6: Original link of the deleted photos from official Facebook pages of CGTN (Chinese) and Peoples’ Daily (overseas)
https://www.facebook.com/CCTV.CH/photos/a.935929333161293/3126396557447882/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/Haiwainet/photos/a.1478199155800059/2576279315992032/?type=3&theater
Source 7: Xi sends congratulatory letter to People’s Daily for its 70th anniversary
https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514d3251544d78457a6333566d54/index.html
