More than $19 Million were paid to the two US newspapers by the Chinese propaganda outlet for paid articles, advertising and printing. NYT and Foreign Policy (FP) were also paid tens of thousands of dollars in advertising. All these newspapers had praised China’s ‘successful handling’ of Corona outbreak.
Documents filed with the US Department of Justice have revealed that most prominent Chinese propaganda media outlet, the China Daily, paid American newspapers nearly $19 million for paid articles, advertising and printing expenses over the past four years. Records show that China Daily paid more than $4.6 million to The Washington Post and nearly $6 million to The Wall Street Journal since November 2016.
DailyCaller reports that both these newspapers published paid supplements that were designed to look like real news articles. The “China Watch” column is produced by China Daily and the inserts have pro-Beijing spin on contemporary news events. One insert from September 2018 touted an initiative pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping with the headline: “Belt and Road aligns with African nations.” The same insert ran a story titled “Tariffs to take toll on U.S. homebuyers” that asserted that U.S. tariffs on Chinese lumber would raise the cost of building homes in the United States.
DailyCaller also reports that China Daily paid for advertising in several other newspapers, viz., The New York Times ($50,000), Foreign Policy ($240,000), The Des Moines Register ($34,600) and CQ-Roll Call ($76,000). It spent a total of $11,002,628 on advertising in U.S. newspapers, and another $265,822 on advertising with Twitter.
The China Daily has also paid out more than $7.6 million to newspapers and printing companies for its newspaper for U.S.-based readers, the Justice Department’s filings show. The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle and The Boston Globe are all listed as clients of China Daily. The Chinese outlet paid the Los Angeles Times $657,523 for printing services, according to the FARA filings.
The US Justice Department for years required China Daily to disclose its activities regularly under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The recent revelations over payments to US newspapers came after China Daily’s most recent filing submitted on June 1. The filing is the first to include detailed breakdowns of payments to American news outlets.
It was long suspected that China has been buying space and paying for pro-China news stories in newspapers, magazines, news portals and blogs all around the world. It was also revealed that several journalists, influential anchors were also hired by China to write and speak on their behalf. Many newspapers in US, UK and Europe have taken a pro-China stance during the COVID19 outbreak given China the credit for ‘successful handling’ of Corona while blaming US and Trump. Many of these newspapers are on the list of advertisers of China Daily.
Consequently, it is suspected that many newspapers, journalists and news portals in India too are on the payrolls of China and several instances of pro-China narrative have been seen in these outlets during the COVID19 outbreak. Many Left oriented news portals and dailies in India have repeatedly praised China for ‘containing’ the Wuhan originated virus.
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