On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., sent a letter to David Chavern, the president and CEO of the News Media Alliance and American Press Institute, asking him to urge his members to reconsider their collaboration with China Daily, a publication owned by the Communist Party of China.
Scott wrote the following:
Dear Mr. Chavern:
I write to you today with grave concerns about China Daily’s collaboration with major newspapers in the United States. I was disturbed to recently learn that China Daily, a publication owned by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, “collaborates with leading global media organizations” to publish a supplement along with major U.S. newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Growing up I cannot imagine American newspapers including an insert paid for by Communist Soviet Union. When did American newspapers stop caring about American values and simply sell access to their readers to the highest bidder?
We cannot underestimate the threat posed by Communist China, a regime that has no respect for freedom of speech or human rights. By providing Communist China free reign to publish their propaganda alongside our media, we are giving the Chinese government an opportunity to promote values antithetical to the freedoms guaranteed in our Bill of Rights. How can American media companies promote Communist China’s message while they continue to violate the rights of their people and threaten our values around the world? I assume this is paid propaganda by Communist China. Nowhere does it state it is an advertisement for the Communist Party of China.
On the front page of the November 6th edition of China Daily, a story begins by saying “The wish for Western-style liberal democracy is a malignant virus that infects places with weakened ideological immune systems.” This is the propaganda that American newspapers are allowing to be paired with their journalist’s work.
Communist China is not a friend to the United States. They are stealing our intellectual property and technology, and refuse to open their markets to foreign goods as required by their agreement to be part of the WTO. They are militarizing the South China Sea. They continue to attack religious freedom by detaining more than one million Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority group, in internment and re-education camps, and have not lived up to the agreement to give Hong Kong autonomy and freedom.
As you allow China Daily to push their oppressive ideals in our country, ask yourselves, are American publications given the same privileges in China or are they bound by China’s rule of law and censorship? Based on their track record, I think we all know the answer to that question.
We cannot trust Communist China, and we cannot allow them to continue violating human rights. As Americans, we must all take a stand against oppression. I urge you to take this seriously and urge your members to reconsider their relationship with China Daily.
