Exactly how hard is it to find western journalists, actors, or puppets to read whatever script the China Global Television Network hands them?
Not hard at all. A decent salary, which in this context must be called a bribe, is enough to persuade such individuals to discard any nominal allegiance to their own country and join the hordes eager for a chance to mouth Chinese Communist Party propaganda on the air. According to a Guardian story from several years ago (“Inside China’s audacious global propaganda campaign,” December 7, 2018):
Beijing is buying up media outlets and training scores of foreign journalists to “tell China’s story well”—as part of a worldwide propaganda campaign of astonishing scope and ambition.
As they sifted through resumes, the team recruiting for the new London hub of China’s state-run broadcaster had an enviable problem: far, far too many candidates. Almost 6,000 people were applying for just 90 jobs “reporting the news from a Chinese perspective”. . . .
For western journalists, demoralised by endless budget cuts, China Global Television Network presents an enticing prospect, offering competitive salaries to work in state-of-the-art purpose-built studios in Chiswick, west London. . . .
Since 2003, when revisions were made to an official document outlining the political goals of the People’s Liberation Army, so-called “media warfare” has been an explicit part of Beijing’s military strategy. The aim is to influence public opinion overseas in order to nudge foreign governments into making policies favourable towards China’s Communist party.
It’s not just Great Britain that is being targeted by the Chinese Communist Party’s sugarcoated but poisonous propaganda in the guise of news. It’s Latin America, it’s the United States, it’s Canada, it’s Italy, it’s the Czech Republic, it’s Africa, it’s the Philippines, it’s the world.
A Canadian MP, Michael Chong, has the right idea: deny the CCP the ability to broadcast within your country. “We’re calling on the government to direct the CRTC [Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission] to a new broadcasting policy of general application that authoritarian state–controlled broadcasters, which spread propaganda and disinformation and which violate international human rights law, should not be on the list. There’s no excuse.”
