Crises in China and in Cuba necessitate more public diplomacy: Direct and uncensored information to Chinese and Cuban peoples need to be expanded.
Prepared by Center for a Free Cuba staff
ABSTRACT
The Center has received reports that two dozen Radio Marti employees are to be fired for budgetary reasons. Cutting back personnel and programming to Cuba in the midst multiple escalating crises is short sighted. Equally disturbing are reports that Voice of America has canceled Chinese-language programs on Taiwan at a moment that Beijing is engaged in an increasingly hostile military posture against Taipei, and has been expanding its shortwave and AM broadcasts around the world to advance its propaganda objectives. That the United States has been scaling back its shortwave and AM radio programming while relying more on the internet that can be shutdown, and jammed more easily than these older technologies is worrisome.
It has been a priority of the Castro regime over the past 37 years to shut down Radio Marti, or render ineffective this important channel of information that reaches many Cubans on the island. Havana has used both diplomatic and other means in their efforts. This has also included tightening control of the internet through both legal and technical restrictions. On July 4, 2019 the Castro regime imposed Legal Decree 370 “ON THE COMPUTERIZATION OF CUBAN SOCIETY that according to Reporters Without Borders will annihilate freedom of expression on the Internet in Cuba. These restrictions, and efforts to block AM signals, and travel restrictions means that shortwave radio is a key element to reach Cubans on the island that the regime cannot fully block. Cubans from across the island are listening to Radio Marti and audience reports received indicate satisfaction with programming content. Radio Marti is an example of public diplomacy, also known as people’s diplomacy, which is communicating directly with the Cuban public, and providing news, reporting, and commentary that are not subject to the censorship of the Castro regime.
CRISES IN CHINA AND IN CUBA NECESSITATE MORE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY THROUGH UNCENSORED NEWS
The Center has received reports that two dozen Radio Marti employees have been fired due to budgetary reasons. Cutting back personnel and programming to Cuba in the midst of the greatest migration crises in 63 years, with protests breaking out, and rising repression across the island does not make sense. Public diplomacy necessitates providing more access to uncensored news for Cubans on the island, and also for the United States government to be able to message Cubans on the island. The Internet is still not a substitute for shortwave radio on the island. It has been demonstrated that it is much easier for Havana to cut off the internet than it is to jam shortwave radio.
Equally disturbing are reports that Voice of America is canceling Chinese-language programs on Taiwan at a moment that Beijing is engaged in an increasingly hostile military posture against Taipei. Now is the time to reach out with uncensored information to mainland China, and conduct public diplomacy directly with the Chinese people. These cancellations that are impacting Taiwanese-American broadcasters raise great concerns. Especially at a time when Beijing is expanding its shortwave and AM radio broadcasts world wide.
That both cuts in Marti Noticias and VOA Chinese broadcasts are occurring at the same time should raise concerns in Congress. Especially when Russia, China, Cuba, and Iran are conducting joint military exercises in Venezuela, and China is sending troops to Russia.
This trend has been ongoing for sometime, but the present moment demands more, not less public diplomacy through channels that will reach more Cubans and Chinese nationals, and that Beijing and Havana will find more difficult to shut down or jam.
THE RIGHT TO HAVE INFORMATION
When it finally went on the air on May 20, 1985 Radio Marti marked a before and after inside Cuba. At the time President Reagan hoped that Radio Marti would ''help defuse the war hysteria on which much of current Cuban Government policy is predicated.'' Despite Havana's bellicose rhetoric within three years the Castro regime in 1988 opened Cuba to International Red Cross inspections of its prisons for the first time since 1959, responding to the Reagan and Bush Administrations' tough public diplomacy, and dissident voices from the island reporting on human rights violations in Cuba that were broadcast over Radio Marti. These inspections were shut down a year later in 1989, due to the negative news on conditions in the island's prisons.
As was the case with Radio Free Europe, Radio Marti mobilized select émigrés that had been, or were then, public figures in Cuba and amplified their voices in the island as an alternative to the official discourse of the dictatorship. Unfortunately, as was the case during periods of detente with the USSR when voices emerged from Congress to silence Radio Free Europe, during openings with Havana, voices also emerged to shut down Radio Marti, or reduce its funding. This was in response to regime requests to shut it down.
It is also safe to assume that as was the case of Radio Free Europe during the Cold War that Havana sought to infiltrate the station, and occupy key positions at Radio Marti. The Cuban government has also spent considerable resources to jam Radio Marti, but failed to completely block it reaching Cubans on the island. In recent years there has been an effort to end shortwave broadcasting at Radio Marti, and other U.S. radio outlets to the detriment of U.S. public diplomacy.
Cuban officials are shifting their censorship strategies on the island. On July 4, 2019 Legal Decree 370 “ON THE COMPUTERIZATION OF CUBAN SOCIETY,” came into force in Cuba that further tightened already draconian controls over information. Article 68, Subsection i, establishes as a violation of law the act of “spreading information contrary to the common good, morals, decency, and integrity through public data transmission networks.” This contravenes freedom of expression standards established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without Borders described Decree 370 as “annihilating freedom of expression on the Internet,” and in 2022 listed Cuba the eighth worst country in press freedoms out of 180 nations. According to Freedom House, it bans Cuban citizens “from hosting web content on foreign servers, leaving independent media in jeopardy.” “The law targets journalists, bloggers and human rights activists in particular with harsh penalties. Those accused can be fined up to CUP 10,000, ten times the average monthly salary, or face six months in prison. They can also have the equipment that they used seized.
What is happening with the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) now is not done in isolation. The decision of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), and VOA to shut down Chinese Radio Service on October 1, 2011 was a mistake, and protests were made at the time, but to no avail. According to BBG the decision to shut down was based "on the increase of the number of Internet users and decline in shortwave listenership in China." This ignores that the internet in China is systematically censored by the Chinese Communist Party, and international broadcasts are blacked out when containing material Beijing wants suppressed. Despite this, U.S. broadcast experts claimed that the internet was the future in China when announcing the end of the broadcast service in 2011.
While the United States shut down its radio service to China, Beijing expanded its short-wave radio service internationally using frequencies abandoned by Western Democracies. China is reaching out to large audiences in India using shortwave radio. In the United States, Beijing took over an AM radio station to blanket the DC metro area with their programming in April 2011. There are at least another dozen radio stations run by Beijing across the United States. Communist China is on the offensive with its public diplomacy while the United States has been in retreat.
Cutting funding for Radio Marti, and VOA Taiwan programming is part of an overall American retreat from public diplomacy that is harmful to US national interests, and to relations between the peoples of the United States, China, and Cuba.
SOME FACTS
In spite of the challenges to carry out a comprehensive audience survey inside Cuba, reports on radio and digital platforms, as well as direct testimonies from the island confirm Radio Marti is listened to by Cubans. A survey published in April 2015 by the USAGM, found 20% of Cubans, from a sample of 1,200 adults in the island, listened to Radio Marti. The survey was conducted by Bendixen and Amandi International for Univision Radio. Taking into consideration that Radio Marti enters Cuba thru different means (shortwave, AM, digital, flash drives), it is not a leap to say that a much bigger percentage of Cubans listen to the station, amid censure measures taken by Havana.
(https://www.usagm.gov/2015/04/09/20-of-cubans-report-listening-to-radio-marti/).
Cubans listen daily to Radio Marti, in many cases, it is the only independent information media they receive. Recently gathered testimonies from different parts of the island, from West to East, acknowledge the importance of Radio Marti broadcasts.
“I am Alexander Rodríguez Santiesteban, an activist from the Eastern Democratic Alliance. I live in Los Pinos, Banes, Holguín Province. I listen to the news on Radio Martí daily. I send greetings to all the people from Radio Martí. The programs on the radio are very good, since they inform us of what is happening in the world and in our country.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z25RZQkPgfQ)
Mikel García from Cienfuegos explains: “I like listening to it because the truth is told, the real truth that happens in this country, which is not said by Radio Ciudad del Mar, or Radio Rebelde, or Radio Progreso, any kind of radio here in Cuba, but on Radio Martí the truth is told”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9BCqdcjEAg).
Radio Marti digital platforms have experienced a growing number of views, likes and shares from the island, in spite of censorship. During 2020, for example, Radio Marti videos posted on YouTube had 1,285,577 views in Cuba, and 43,471 watch time hours. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram also showed a growing number of engagements from the island, even the Radio Marti Webpage, blocked to Cubans by the government, had 642,766 views during 2020.
Measurements taken by the OCB for several months now to implement structural and financial changes in order to transition from legacy programming to a new strategy which can grow digital platforms engagement and transform programming to impact broader audiences; reduce expenses and reduce contractor staff.
However, there are important aspects to take into consideration that will be harmful and run counter to the OCB mission:
Shortwave and AM transmissions cannot be eliminated as they are the main outlet for Cuban listeners, and AM 1180 frequency is codified in the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act 1983.
Moving OCB to Washington DC will mean distancing from Cuban opposition activists who frequently visit Miami and have contact with OCB journalists.
OCB needs to have journalists based on the island who could be hired for reporting.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
People to people contact and Public Diplomacy
People to people contact is an important aspect of diplomacy that too often in the past has been confused with people to dictatorship contact when it comes to Cuba, China, and other regimes. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, “public diplomacy, also called people’s diplomacy, any of various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics.” Radio Marti was inspired by Radio Free Europe (RFE) that successfully exercised public diplomacy and continues to do so today.
Radio Marti's antecedent Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
The United States after World War II with the expansion of Soviet control through Eastern and Central Europe feared that Western Europe would also fall under communist control, and began to look at policies to stop it. Career U.S. diplomat George Kennan, in 1947 developed what would become known as the containment policy that consisted “of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” Part of this overall strategy involved public diplomacy, and Kennan advocated mobilizing select émigrés from countries taken over by the Russians to put their voices on the radio in their own respective languages, " broadcasting to five countries of Eastern Europe" in what would become Radio Free Europe (RFE).
These regimes viewed the breaking of the monopoly control of information reaching their respective populations as a threat, and began jamming the radio broadcasts, but their other countermeasures were more sinister. The Hoover Institution archives in 2001 published "The Story of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty" and outlined some of the active measures carried out that rose to the level of terrorism.
"In addition to jamming, the communist governments used other methods to silence the radios. Viewing the émigré employees as traitors to their homelands, the regimes threatened employees and their families still living behind the Iron Curtain. Spies infiltrated the radios, occupying some key positions. Bombings and assassinations took place. The most notorious assassination was that of Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian writer and former associate of Bulgarian president Todor Zhivkov. He was stabbed with an umbrella containing a pellet of deadly ricin poison. On February 21, 1981, a tremendous explosion rocked the RFE/RL headquarters in Munich, causing $2 million in damage and some injuries but no deaths. Stasi files opened after 1989 indicated that the bombing was carried out by a group of international terrorists under the direction of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, and paid for by Nicolae Ceaușescu, president of Romania."
Carlos the Jackal, a Venezuelan national, attended the January 1966 Tricontinental meeting in Havana and afterwards was trained in terror tactics in Cuba. In Europe he had been linked to Cuban diplomats who met with him regularly, and France expelled three high‐ranking Cuban diplomats on July 10, 1975. “The French Interior Ministry said that investigators were convinced that the terrorist network had been helped significantly by the intelligence services of ‘certain nations.’ The Cubans, according to the ministry, had been “constant visitors” to the Paris hideout of Carlos,” reported The New York Times in 1975.
The United States between 1974 and 1981 had attempted to reach an accommodation with Havana only to be repeatedly disappointed in the bad faith actions of the Castro regime. The Reagan Administration initially reached out on November 23, 1981 with Secretary of State Alexander Haig meeting with Cuban vice president Carlos Rafael Rodriguez in Mexico and again in 1982 with Ambassador Vernon Walters secretly meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba, and determining on both occasions that there was no chance to reach an accommodation with Havana. The White House went forth with a policy of directly reaching out to the Cuban people.
Radio Marti launched by Ronald Reagan on May 20, 1985
Ronald Reagan is known as the "great communicator" and throughout his presidency demonstrated the power of using the bully pulpit to address the American people. An early example of this was with the creation of Radio Marti and his advocacy for the creation of the station on September 10, 1983.
"The Soviets are terrified of the truth. They understand well and they dread the meaning of St. John's words: ‘You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ The truth is mankind's best hope for a better world. That's why in times like this, few assets are more important than the Voice of America and Radio Liberty, our primary means of getting the truth to the Russian people.[...] We've repeatedly urged the Congress to support our long-term modernization program and our proposal for a new radio station, Radio Marti, for broadcasting to Cuba. The sums involved are modest, but for whatever reason this critical program has not been enacted. Today I'm appealing to the Congress: Help us get the truth through. Help us strengthen our international broadcasting effort by supporting increased funding for the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and by authorizing the establishment of Radio Marti."
SOURCES AND EXCERPTS
The Washington Times, August 18, 2022
VOA cancels Chinese-language programs on Taiwan
Critics say official broadcaster softening coverage of China
In this June 15, 2020, file photo, the Voice of America building stands in Washington. The new chief of U.S. global media is plowing ahead with changes to the Voice of America and other international broadcasters that are heightening concerns about their future as independent news organizations. Although Agency for Global Media chief executive Michael Pack has assured Congress that VOA and its sister networks will remain independent and pledged he would consult lawmakers on significant developments, last week he initiated personnel changes and began a review of visas for foreign employees. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times - Thursday, August 18, 2022
Voice of America is canceling two Chinese-language programs focused on the standoff between China and Taiwan in a move critics say signals a softening of the broadcaster’s coverage of communist China.
The cancellations, involving Taiwanese-American broadcasters, were announced recently in an internal message to employees of the U.S. government-owned international news operation known as VOA.
VOA spokeswoman Anna Morris confirmed the program changes but downplayed the notion that they represent a curtailing of China coverage. Instead, she said, they are part of a larger effort by VOA‘s Mandarin language service to shift from traditional television to digital platforms.
“Our weekly Taiwan-focused TV program ‘Strait Talk’ will end, but coverage of Taiwan will expand on our daily ‘Issues and Opinions’ talk show, allowing more comprehensive and timely discussions of Taiwan and China issues,” Ms. Morris said.
She said VOA Mandarin will also transition its “Eye on America” television program to web and social media later this month.
The goal of the shifts is to “counter disinformation from China in a more timely and nimble way,” Ms. Morris said. She added that VOA has “significantly strengthened” its coverage of Taiwan and China.
“We have increased our on-the-ground presence in Taiwan from two to eight journalists,” she said. “We are putting more emphasis on the web and social media, where Chinese and Taiwanese viewers can access content on demand more easily than they could over linear broadcast.”
VOA has said similar shifts were behind its decision in 2011, during the Obama administration, to cancel shortwave broadcasts into China. Although the shifts included a push to broaden digital content projection, they drew criticism from some for limiting who in China could listen to VOA programs.
The broadcaster also has come under fire in the past from Republicans in Congress for programming that was viewed as too conciliatory toward China and for promoting content that avoided controversial subjects.
A person familiar with the internal workings of VOA and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees all American government broadcasting internationally, said both of the VOA programs slated for cancellation have a sharp focus on Taiwan.
The shows were hosted or produced by Taiwanese-Americans, including VOA veterans considered among the most seasoned and experienced in presenting Taiwanese affairs, the person said on the condition of not being named in this article.
“What they are doing is taking off cutting-edge programs that will produce broadcasts that are less offensive to China,” the person said.
The explanation from VOA that it is shifting from television to digital raises questions about the motive for ending the programs, the person said, noting that the same programs could be produced for digital platforms.
A VOA source said the broadcaster also recently hired a number of Chinese nationals as contractors, raising concern that the Chinese Communist Party will step up efforts to plant covert agents with the mission of influencing VOA broadcasts in ways favorable to Beijing.
The source said VOA‘s Mandarin service has been producing some broadcasts that are critical of China.
The cancellations of the two programs were announced amid another controversy for U.S. government broadcasting.
President Biden has nominated former VOA Director Amanda Bennett to be the chief executive officer for USAGM, which directs six broadcasters including VOA and Radio Free Asia, with a budget this year of $840 million.
Ms. Bennett came under fire in 2018 for her role in abruptly cutting short a live VOA Mandarin service interview with Chinese dissident Guo Wengui under pressure from China.
The Chinese government had threatened to block the accreditation of VOA’s Beijing bureau chief unless the interview was halted, VOA sources disclosed at the time.
VOA later fired the chief of its Mandarin service and several other employees because of the interview.
Some Senate Republicans are expected to oppose the nomination of Ms. Bennett, who was VOA director from 2016 to 2020 and who resigned in protest of Senate-confirmed Trump administration USAGM executive Michael Pack.
Mr. Pack, a conservative filmmaker, replaced all chiefs of the various government-funded broadcasters overseen by the agency before Mr. Biden fired him in January 2021.
The interim chief executive of the USAGM is Kelu Chao.
The blog USAGM Watch stated in a post last month that VOA and other broadcasters need better leadership.
“We hear from our former Voice of America (VOA) colleagues who are political refugees from communist China and the fanatical regime in Iran that they dread the possible return of recent VOA director Amanda Bennett as their new media agency boss,” the blog post stated.
“During her tenure, these Voice of America broadcasters were deeply traumatized in their lowest-employee-morale federal government workplace when five VOA China Branch editors, reporters, and producers — the VOA Mandarin Five — were suspended, and some were fired for what they say was bold journalism in exposing Beijing’s influence operations in the U.S. by interviewing Chinese whistleblower businessman Guo Wengui.”
Ms. Morris, the VOA spokeswoman, said the changes the broadcaster is making are “consistent with others we’ve made that are strengthening VOA’s coverage of China’s activities and their impact.”
Former VOA White House and foreign correspondent Daniel Robinson said he is skeptical of the explanation for the program cancellations against a backdrop of questionable USAGM management decisions since the Biden administration fired all Trump appointees early on in Mr. Biden’s tenure.
“It seems far more than coincidental that these changes are occurring now, with U.S.-PRC tensions high over Taiwan, and in the wake of the Pelosi and other [congressional delegation] visits to Taipei,” Mr. Robinson said. “Something must be going on, and I would wager that there would have been comms/consultations between the White House and USAGM.”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/aug/18/voa-cancels-chinese-language-programs-taiwan/
Reuters, November 2, 2015
Voice of China
Beijing’s covert radio network airs China-friendly news across Washington, and the world
By Koh Gui Qing and John Shiffman
Filed Nov. 2, 2015, 1:40 p.m. GMT
The Chinese government controls much of the content broadcast on a station that is blanketing the U.S. capital with pro-Beijing programming. WCRW is part of an expanding global web of 33 stations in which China’s involvement is obscured.
BEIJING/WASHINGTON – In August, foreign ministers from 10 nations blasted China for building artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea. As media around the world covered the diplomatic clash, a radio station that serves the most powerful city in America had a distinctive take on the news.
Located outside Washington, D.C., WCRW radio made no mention of China’s provocative island project. Instead, an analyst explained that tensions in the region were due to unnamed “external forces” trying “to insert themselves into this part of the world using false claims.”
Behind WCRW’s coverage is a fact that’s never broadcast: The Chinese government controls much of what airs on the station, which can be heard on Capitol Hill and at the White House.
WCRW is just one of a growing number of stations across the world through which Beijing is broadcasting China-friendly news and programming.
A Reuters investigation spanning four continents has identified at least 33 radio stations in 14 countries that are part of a global radio web structured in a way that obscures its majority shareholder: state-run China Radio International, or CRI.
Many of these stations primarily broadcast content created or supplied by CRI or by media companies it controls in the United States, Australia and Europe. Three Chinese expatriate businessmen, who are CRI’s local partners, run the companies and in some cases own a stake in the stations. The network reaches from Finland to Nepal to Australia, and from Philadelphia to San Francisco.
At WCRW, Beijing holds a direct financial interest in the Washington station’s broadcasts. Corporate records in the United States and China show a Beijing-based subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned radio broadcaster owns 60 percent of an American company that leases almost all of the station’s airtime.
China has a number of state-run media properties, such as the Xinhua news agency, that are well-known around the world. But American officials charged with monitoring foreign media ownership and propaganda said they were unaware of the Chinese-controlled radio operation inside the United States until contacted by Reuters. A half-dozen former senior U.S. officials said federal authorities should investigate whether the arrangement violates laws governing foreign media and agents in the United States.
A U.S. law enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibits foreign governments or their representatives from holding a radio license for a U.S. broadcast station. Under the Communications Act, foreign individuals, governments and corporations are permitted to hold up to 20 percent ownership directly in a station and up to 25 percent in the U.S. parent corporation of a station.
CRI itself doesn’t hold ownership stakes in U.S. stations, but it does have a majority share via a subsidiary in the company that leases WCRW in Washington and a Philadelphia station with a similarly high-powered signal.
Said former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt: “If there were allegations made about de facto Chinese government ownership of radio stations, then I’m sure the FCC would investigate.”
U.S. law also requires anyone inside the United States seeking to influence American policy or public opinion on behalf of a foreign government or group to register with the Department of Justice. Public records show that CRI’s U.S. Chinese-American business partner and his companies haven’t registered as foreign agents under the law, called the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.
“I would make a serious inquiry under FARA into a company rebroadcasting Chinese government propaganda inside the United States without revealing that it is acting on behalf of, or it’s owned or controlled by China,” said D.E. “Ed” Wilson Jr., a former senior White House and Treasury Department official.
CRI headquarters in Beijing and the Chinese embassy in Washington declined to make officials available for interviews or to comment on the findings of this article.
Justice Department national security spokesman Marc Raimondi and FCC spokesman Neil Grace declined to comment.
Other officials at the FCC said the agency receives so many license applications that it only launches a probe if it receives a complaint. People familiar with the matter said no such complaint has been lodged with the FCC about the CRI-backed network in the United States.
BUILDING “SOFT POWER”
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has chafed at a world order he sees as dominated by the United States and its allies, is aware that China struggles to project its views in the international arena.
“We should increase China’s soft power, give a good Chinese narrative and better communicate China’s message to the world,” Xi said in a policy address in November last year, according to Xinhua.
CRI head Wang Gengnian has described Beijing’s messaging effort as the “borrowed boat” strategy - using existing media outlets in foreign nations to carry China’s narrative.
The 33 radio stations backed by CRI broadcast in English, Chinese or local languages, offering a mix of news, music and cultural programs. Newscasts are peppered with stories highlighting China’s development, such as its space program, and its contribution to humanitarian causes, including earthquake relief in Nepal.
“We are not the evil empire that some Western media portray us to be,” said a person close to the Communist Party leadership in Beijing who is familiar with the CRI network. “Western media reports about China are too negative. We just want to improve our international image. It’s self-protection.”
In some ways, the CRI-backed radio stations fulfill a similar advocacy role to that of the U.S.-run Voice of America. But there is a fundamental difference: VOA openly publishes the fact that it receives U.S. government funding. CRI is using front companies that cloak its role.
A few of the programs broadcast in the United States cite reports from CRI, but most don’t. One program, The Beijing Hour, says it is “brought to you by China Radio International.”
Some shows are slick, others lack polish. While many segments are indistinguishable from mainstream American radio shows, some include announcers speaking English with noticeable Chinese accents.
The production values vary because the broadcasts are appealing to three distinct audiences: first-generation Chinese immigrants with limited English skills; second-generation Chinese curious about their ancestral homeland; and non-Chinese listeners whom Beijing hopes to influence.
One thing the programs have in common: They generally ignore criticism of China and steer clear of anything that casts Beijing in a negative light.
A top-of-the-hour morning newscast on Oct. 15, broadcast in Washington and other U.S. cities, was identified only as “City News.” It reported that U.S. officials were concerned about cyber attacks, including one in which the personal information of about 20 million American government workers was allegedly stolen. The broadcast left out a key element: It has been widely reported that U.S. officials believe China was behind that hack.
Last year, as thousands of protesters demanding free elections paralyzed Hong Kong for weeks, the news on CRI-backed stations in the United States presented China’s point of view. A report the day after the protests ended did not explain why residents were on the streets and carried no comments from protest leaders. The demonstrations, a report said, had “failed without the support of the people in Hong Kong.”
Many of these stations do not run ads and so do not appear to be commercially motivated.
Around the world, corporate records show, CRI’s surrogates use the same business structure. The three Chinese businessmen in partnership with Beijing have each created a domestic media company that is 60 percent owned by a Beijing-based group called Guoguang Century Media Consultancy. Guoguang, in turn, is wholly owned by a subsidiary of CRI, according to Chinese company filings.
The three companies span the globe:
• In Europe, GBTimes of Tampere, Finland, has an ownership stake in or provides content to at least nine stations, according to interviews and an examination of company filings.
• In Asia-Pacific, Global CAMG Media Group of Melbourne, Australia, has an ownership stake in or supplies programming to at least eight stations, according to corporate records.
• And in North America, G&E Studio Inc, near Los Angeles, California, broadcasts content nearly full time on at least 15 U.S. stations. A station in Vancouver also broadcasts G&E content. In addition to distributing CRI programming, G&E produces and distributes original Beijing-friendly shows from its California studios.
In a Sept. 16 interview at his offices near Los Angeles, G&E president and CEO James Su confirmed that CRI subsidiary Guoguang Century Media holds a majority stake in his company and that he has a contract with the Chinese broadcaster. He said that a non-disclosure agreement bars him from divulging details.
Su said he complies with U.S. laws. G&E doesn’t own stations, but rather leases the airtime on them. “It’s like a management company that manages a condominium,” he said.
Su added that he is a businessman, not an agent for China. “Our U.S. audience and our U.S. public has the choice,” Su said. “They can choose to listen or not listen. I think this is an American value.”
GBTimes CEO Zhao Yinong, who spearheads the European arm of the expatriate radio operation, confirmed that he receives several million euros a year from CRI. In an interview in Beijing, Zhao said he was "not interested in creating a false China" and he had “nothing to hide.”
Tommy Jiang, the head of CAMG, the Australian-based company that owns and operates stations in the Asia-Pacific region, declined to comment.
BORN IN A CAVE
CRI has grown remarkably since its founding in 1941. According to its English-language website, its first broadcast was aired from a cave, and the news reader had to frighten away wolves with a flashlight. Today, CRI says it broadcasts worldwide in more than 60 languages and Chinese dialects.
CRI content is carefully scripted, with the treatment of sensitive topics such as the banned Falun Gong spiritual group adhering strictly to the government line. Those restrictions might make China’s soft-power push an uphill battle with audiences in places like Houston, Rome or Auckland.
But CRI does have something to offer station owners. Since 2010, CRI’s broadcast partner in the United States has struck deals that bailed out struggling community radio stations, either by purchasing them outright or paying tens of thousands of dollars a month to lease virtually all their airtime. The latter is known as “time-brokering” and is the method G&E used to take to the air in Washington.
The 195-foot towers broadcasting Beijing’s agenda throughout the Washington region are located in suburban Loudoun County, Virginia, near Dulles International Airport. They pump out a 50,000-watt signal, the maximum for an AM station in the United States.
The towers went live in 2011. In the previous five decades, before the Chinese got involved, the station was known as WAGE, and it used smaller equipment and broadcast mostly local news and talk.
At just 5,000 watts, the signal didn’t carry far. This didn’t matter much until the 1990s, when Loudoun County boomed into a bedroom community for Washington. Commuters would lose the signal halfway to the capital.
In 2005, an American company called Potomac Radio LLC purchased the station and added some nationally syndicated programming. Potomac Radio president Alan Pendleton said his company had a history of leasing time to ethnic programmers, including an hour a day to CRI on another station. Revenue at WAGE continued to fall, however, and in 2009, it went off the air.
“It was a painful, painful experience,” said Pendleton. “We were losing millions of dollars a year down the drain.”
Saying they hoped to resurrect the station, other Potomac Radio executives asked Loudoun County in 2009 for permission to erect three broadcast towers on land owned by a county utility, records show. The new towers would boost the station’s signal tenfold to 50,000 watts, reaching into Washington.
In their application, Potomac Radio executives argued that the new towers offered the “last hope to retain Loudoun County’s only” radio station. The paperwork made no mention of plans to lease airtime to Su and CRI.
Potomac Radio also invoked the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a day when the station provided “critical information to county businesses and parents” as mobile phone service became overloaded. The new towers would contribute to public safety, proponents said.
The county Board of Supervisors approved the towers. In the days before the station came back on air in April 2011, Potomac Radio sought FCC permission to change the name to WCRW.
Asked about the initials, Pendleton confirmed that they stand for China Radio Washington. The change was his idea, not CRI’s, he said.
Loudoun County officials were surprised when the amped-up station returned as WCRW and began broadcasting G&E and CRI content about China.
“It was all very deceptive,” said Kelly Burk, a county supervisor at the time. “They presented it as all about being about local radio, and never let on what they were really up to.”
Potomac Radio’s Pendleton said there was no deception. His company was approached by CRI several months after the county approved the towers, he said.
Pendleton said he didn’t know that G&E was 60 percent owned by a subsidiary of the Chinese government until Reuters informed him. But the arrangement complies with FCC law, he said, because G&E leases the airwaves instead of owning the station.
In any event, he said, CRI is open about its goals: to present a window into Chinese culture and offer Chinese points of view on international affairs.
“If you listen to other state-sponsored broadcasters,” especially Russia’s, “they’re really insidious,” Pendleton said. “CRI’s not like that at all.”
Pendleton said he has no input in WCRW content: He simply rebroadcasts whatever programs arrive from CRI’s man in America, G&E founder James Su.
CHINA’S “PROXY”
James Yantao Su was born in Shanghai in 1970, the year China launched its first satellite. He moved to the United States in 1989, he said, ultimately settling in West Covina, a suburb of Los Angeles, and became a U.S. citizen.
By the early 2000s, Su was a moderately successful media entrepreneur. But after his 2009 deal to create G&E, in which the Chinese state-owned subsidiary has a majority stake, his fortunes rose.
Today, the 44-year-old owns or co-owns real estate and radio stations worth more than $15 million, according to a Reuters analysis of U.S. corporate, property, tax and FCC records. His projects include English and Chinese-language stations, a magazine, a newspaper, four apartment buildings, condos at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, a film festival and a charity that last year donated $230,000 to an orphanage in China.
Two of his primary companies are G&E Studio and EDI Media Inc. G&E dedicated a page on its website to showcase CRI as a "close” partner, but it recently deleted the page after Reuters made inquiries. EDI’s site says it has become “China’s outward media and advertising proxy” in the United States.
In 2013, the Chinese government presented Su with a special contribution award at a media event for Chinese broadcasters.
Other ties are not as visible: The key disclosure that G&E is 60 percent owned by Guoguang Century - the Beijing firm that’s 100 percent owned by CRI - is contained in a footnote in a lengthy FCC filing made on behalf of another Su company, Golden City Broadcast, LLC.
Su declined to discuss his business career in detail. An early highlight, though, was a speech he gave in 2003, when he was in his early thirties.
Covered by China’s state-run media, the speech laid out Su’s vision for a business that could be profitable and also help China project its message in the United States. The business would need to be structured to comply with U.S. ownership laws and would “endorse China’s ideology,” Su was quoted as saying.
In the same speech, he spoke of his fellow expats’ affinity for China. “The sense of belonging to China among countrymen residing abroad and their endorsement of China’s current policies grow with each day,” Su said, according to Xinhua.
In 2008, Su gave an address in which he criticized U.S. media for focusing their China coverage on issues such as human rights.
The media were misleading “the American masses’ objective understanding of China, even engendering hostile emotions,” Su said, according to a China National Radio report.
It was in 2009 that Su’s vision really began to take shape. That year, records show, Su created G&E Studio.
G&E now broadcasts in English and Chinese on at least 15 U.S. stations, including Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston, Honolulu and Portland, Oregon.
The content is largely the same on each station, produced either by CRI from Beijing or by G&E from California.
A typical hour on most stations begins with a short newscast that can toggle between China news and stories about violent crimes in the United States. Besides the overtly political coverage, topics range from global currency fluctuations and Chinese trade missions to celebrity wardrobe analysis and modern parenting challenges.
While Su owns a minority share of G&E, he has structured his radio station holdings in various ways. According to the most recent FCC records, he is the majority owner of at least six stations, such as the one in Atlanta, which he purchased for $2.1 million in 2013.
In other cases he leases airtime. In Washington, for instance, he leases virtually all the time on WCRW for more than $720,000 a year through G&E. A Philadelphia station is leased under a similar arrangement for at least $600,000 a year.
A spokeswoman for Su said Reuters’ description of the extent of his network is “generally correct.”
Su declined to describe how he makes money when most of the U.S. stations air virtually no commercials. He also declined to say how he got the money to finance his radio leases and acquisitions.
His stations, Su said, offer the American public an alternative viewpoint on Chinese culture and politics. He has “no way to control” what CRI broadcasts on the stations, he said, nor is he part of any plan to spread Chinese propaganda.
“We are only telling the unfiltered real news to our audience,” he said.
On Oct. 29, WCRW carried a program called “The Hourly News.” Among the top stories: Senior Chinese and U.S. naval commanders planned to speak by video after a U.S. Navy ship passed close by China’s new artificial islands in the South China Sea. Washington and its allies see the island-building program as a ploy to grab control of strategic sea lanes, and the Navy sail-by was meant to counter China’s territorial claims.
WCRW omitted that side of the story.
The admirals are holding the talks, the announcer said, “amid the tension the U.S. created this week.”
Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim and Joseph Campbell in Beijing, Ritsuko Ando in Tokyo, Gopal Sharma and Ross Adkin in Kathmandu, Mirwais Harooni in Kabul, Joyce Lee in Seoul, Eveline Danubrata and Arzia Tivany Wargadiredja in Jakarta, Khettiya Jittapong and Pairat Temphairojana in Bangkok, Theodora D’cruz in Singapore, Mohammed Shihar in Colombo, Terrence Edwards in Ulan Bator, Diane Chan in Hong Kong, Jane Wardell and Ian Chua in Sydney, Balazs Koranyi and Harro Ten Wolde in Frankfurt, Jussi Rosendahl in Helsinki, Sara Ledwith in London, Julia Fioretti in Brussels, Can Sezer in Istanbul, Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Kole Casule in Skopje, Renee Maltezou in Athens, Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi, Radu-Sorin Marinas in Bucharest, Geert De Clercq in Paris, Marton Dunai in Budapest, Ed Cropley in Johannesburg, Selam Gebrekidan in New York, Anna Driver in Houston, Renee Dudley in Boston, Brian Grow in Atlanta, David Storey in Washington and Euan Rocha in Toronto
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-radio/
Reagan Library and Museum
Radio Address to the Nation on American International Broadcasting
September 10, 1983
My fellow Americans:
During my first press conference 9 days after being sworn in as your President, I was asked a question having to do with Soviet intentions. In my answer I cited their own words -- that they have openly and publicly declared the only morality they recognize is what will further world communism; that they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat, in order to attain that. And I pointed out that we should keep this in mind when we deal with them.
I was charged with being too harsh in my language. I tried to point out I was only quoting their own words. Well, I hope the Soviets' recent behavior will dispel any lingering doubt about what kind of regime we're dealing with and what our responsibilities are as trustees of freedom and peace. Isn't it time for all of us to see the Soviet rulers as they are, rather than as we would like them to be?
Rather than tell the truth about the Korean Air Lines massacre, rather than immediately and publicly investigate the crash, explain to the world how it happened, punish those guilty of the crime, cooperate in efforts to find the wreckage, recover the bodies, apologize and offer compensation to the families, and work to prevent a repetition, they have done the opposite. They've stonewalled the world, mobilizing their entire government behind a massive coverup, then brazenly threatening to kill more men, women, and children should another civilian airliner make the same mistake as KAL 007.
The Soviets are terrified of the truth. They understand well and they dread the meaning of St. John's words: ``You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'' The truth is mankind's best hope for a better world. That's why in times like this, few assets are more important than the Voice of America and Radio Liberty, our primary means of getting the truth to the Russian people.
Within minutes of the report of the Soviet destruction of the Korean jet, the Voice of America aired the story in its news programs around the globe. We made sure people in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and, most important, the people in the Soviet bloc itself knew the truth. That includes every Soviet misstatement, from their initial denials through all the tortured changes and contradictions in their story, including their U.N. representative still denying they shot down the plane even as his own government was finally admitting they did.
Accurate news like this is about as welcome as the plague among the Soviet elite. Censorship is as natural and necessary to the survival of their dictatorship as free speech is to our democracy. That's why they devote such enormous resources to block our broadcasts inside Soviet-controlled countries. The Soviets spend more to block Western broadcasts coming into those countries than the entire worldwide budget of the Voice of America.
To get the news across to the Russian people about the Korean Air Lines massacre, the Voice of America added new frequencies and new broadcast times. But within minutes of those changes, new Soviet jamming began. Luckily, jamming is more like a sieve than a wall. International radio broadcasts can still get through to many people with the news. But we still face enormous difficulties.
One of the Voice of America's listeners in the Middle East wrote, "If you do not strengthen your broadcasting frequencies, no one can get anything from your program.'' Our radio equipment is just plain old, some of it World War II vintage. I don't mind people getting older; it's just not so good for machines.
More than 35 percent of the Voice of America's transmitters are over 30 years old. We have a similar problem at Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. We have 6 antiquated 500-kilowatt shortwave transmitters. The Soviets have 37, and theirs are neither old nor outdated. We regularly receive complaints that Soviet broadcasts are clearer than ours. One person wrote and asked why it's not possible for a nation that can send ships into space to have its own voice heard here on Earth.
The answer is simple. We're as far behind the Soviets and their allies in international broadcasting today as we were in space when they launched sputnik in 1957.
We've repeatedly urged the Congress to support our long-term modernization program and our proposal for a new radio station, Radio Marti, for broadcasting to Cuba. The sums involved are modest, but for whatever reason this critical program has not been enacted.
Today I'm appealing to the Congress: Help us get the truth through. Help us strengthen our international broadcasting effort by supporting increased funding for the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and by authorizing the establishment of Radio Marti.
And I appeal to you, especially those of you who came from Eastern Europe, Russia, and Soviet-dominated countries, who understand how crucial this issue is, let your Representatives hear from you. Tell them you want Soviet rulers held accountable for their actions even by their own people. The truth is still our strongest weapon; we just have to use it.
Finally, let us come together as a nation tomorrow in a National Day of Mourning to share the sorrow of the families and let us resolve that this crime against humanity will never be forgotten anywhere in the world. Until next week, thank you for listening, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 12:06 p.m. from the Oval Office at the White House.
Date: 09/10/1983