The name should have been the giveaway…
The Drill Down previously reported on China’s use of social media platforms to create thousands of fake accounts to spread disinformation. DD also reported on China invading U.S. airwaves; state-run China Radio International reportedly gave $4.4 million dollars to the D.C.-based Potomac Radio Group, owners of WCRW AM 1190, to air content and propaganda.
Now, China’s breaking further into media.
Based in New York, “The China Project” specializes in, as the name implies, reporting on all-things China. But now we’re learning that the media outlet has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party —specifically ties to influence operations. Sound familiar?
According to The Daily Caller, “Over 20 organizations that may have been led by such individuals have apparently partnered with or financially sponsored TCP, including the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) and the Confucius Institute. Both groups apparently began professional relationships with TCP after the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) identified them as CCP influence operations in 2018.”
So the TCP can’t exactly plead ignorance —but they did try to deny it outright!
Back in October of this year, former TCP business editor Shannon Van Sant delivered a sworn declaration to Congress and the Department of Justice stating that she had been fired in June 2020 for “being out of ‘alignment’ with the organization’s alleged pro-CCP bias,” The DC reports.
“It is important to me to provide transparency and shed light on my experiences,” Van Sant’s declaration stated. “That is why I am doing this disclosure.”
Members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith said that the TCP “should be forced to register” as a foreign agent —but TCP’s lawyer, Boies Schiller Flexner, denied Van Sant’s claim.
“Nothing in Ms. Van Sant’s ‘sworn declaration’ comes close to providing evidence, direct or circumstantial, that TCP is working for or has worked for the Chinese government,” Boies Schiller Flexner wrote to news outlet Semafor.
“Beyond national security concerns, we know that CCP agents often target the Chinese diaspora in the United States,” Rep. Smith said. “We must help defend our fellow citizens and lawful permanent residents from pressure — and in many cases, transnational repression up to and including assassination attempts — by the Chinese Communist Party.”
Is there any angle China isn’t attacking the U.S. from?
