A quarter of a dollar .. Chinese “propaganda” in the heart of the American capital

WASHINGTON

- In its Thursday edition, the US-distributed China Daily ran an editorial with the headline "US allies should be aware of the dangers of supporting Washington's reckless gamble on Taiwan."

"Recently, the United States is taking reckless steps, one after another, and sending multiple wrong signals to the pro-independence forces on the Chinese island, all to serve the strategic intent of the United States to use the Taiwan question as a means of pressure to contain China and maintain its global hegemony," the editorial said. .

The newspaper also published several editorials during the past days attacking the United States, including “President Biden should stop exploiting the Corona pandemic to achieve narrow political gains,” and “Sino-Russian ties continue to support regional peace and stability,” and “Biden confirms the one China policy in his speech.” before the United Nations General Assembly.

China resorts to several means to deliver its message to the American elite, including politicians, diplomats, journalists, research centers, universities and businessmen.

The China Daily is one of several media outlets the Chinese government is spending millions of dollars on to get its point of view to American newspaper readers.

Americans can get their printed copy from newspaper boxes on the streets of the capital, some near the White House, and others not far from the State Department and Capitol Hills.

The price of a paper copy is only a quarter of a dollar (25 cents), while other newspapers, such as The Washington Post or The New York Times, cost a full $3.

China Daily newspaper sale box on Connecticut Avenue next to the White House (Al Jazeera)

To tell the world about China

A prominent headline at the top of the newspaper's website has the phrase "Xi's moment" - in reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping - and this part of the site includes propaganda materials about the Chinese president, his achievements, speeches, videos of his tours, and a presentation of his vision on various global and local issues.

The newspaper's website also displays cartoons mocking the United States, its politicians, and its positions on various global issues.

The newspaper's website says that "since its launch in 1981, it aims to become a leading English-language newspaper within China, and it plays a vital role in telling the world about China, providing valuable insight into the world's second largest economy. It is quoted more often by foreign media outlets." than any other Chinese newspaper.

The newspaper's headquarters is located in Chaoyang District, the Chinese capital, Beijing, and it has several offices around the world, and in the cities of New York, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.

Its office is located in the famous National Press Building in Washington, DC, less than 200 meters from the White House.

The newspaper says it has a circulation of 300,000 copies in the United States.

The China Daily also has a strong social media presence, with about 106 million followers on its English-language account on Facebook and about 4.2 million on Twitter.

money to spread

US Department of Justice documents indicate the Chinese government's purchase of the China Daily Distribution Company, which is the official publisher of the English edition of the China Daily.

The Chinese company that owns the newspaper paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to distribute it as a free ad supplement at regular intervals in popular newspapers.

The ministry also revealed that the Chinese company paid several million dollars over the past years to famous American newspapers, including "The Wall Street Journal", the Washington Post, "Los Angeles Times" and "The Seattle Times". Seattle Times) and The New York Times.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of sending delegates in the form of journalists to American conferences (Al-Jazeera)

Delegates or journalists?

This prompted former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to say - in a speech on China in July 2020 - that China sends delegates from the Chinese Communist Party in the form of journalists who attend press conferences for government agencies and research institutions in the United States.

Then the administration of former President Donald Trump classified the journalists of official Chinese institutions - including the China Daily - as not practitioners of the press, but rather agents and representatives of the Chinese state.

The newspaper responded to this move by saying that "the United States should not judge the media in other countries by its own standards and based on its ideology. Chinese media organizations in the United States have always followed local laws and respected professional ethics."

"We cover the news normally and have never interfered in the internal affairs of the United States. Over the years, we have played an important and positive role in promoting objective understanding and friendliness of the Chinese people toward the United States," she said.

The New York Times argued that the China Daily articles "generally present an informative, if illogical, view of world affairs, as they emerge through the lens of the Communist Party."