A bipartisan group of senators is demanding answers from the Department of Justice about why Chinese state-controlled news outlets have not been required to register in the U.S. as foreign agents.
Seven senators led by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions if the department has evaluated whether the Chinese state-controlled news outlets should be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. That law was designed to ensure that the U.S. is aware when groups are acting on the behalf of foreign governments.
“If the Department assesses that the [People’s Republic of China] media organizations do not incur reporting requirements under FARA similar to those of U.S.-based affiliates of RT and Sputnik, please state why,” the senators wrote in a letter they sent Tuesday. They asked if the department has examined whether Xinhua and China Daily and their employees should be required to register under FARA.
In December, Foreign Policy reported the American division of China Central Television, China’s state broadcaster, had not registered under FARA despite the Department of Justice’s request for Russian outlets RT and Sputnik to register. The China Global Television Network — formerly CCTV — can be viewed by 30 million U.S. households. CGTN is overseen by China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, which answers to China’s State Council.
The issue has come up because the U.S. intelligence community has said RT helped distribute Russian propaganda and played a key role in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Additionally, a November report by the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission found that people working for Xinhua and China Daily were required to register under FARA. That report states that Xinhua “serves some functions of an intelligence agency by gathering information and producing classified reports for the Chinese leadership.”
It is therefore a “sensible step,” the lawmakers said, to “appropriately enforcing existing laws, such as FARA,” in a way to protect against China’s “increasingly active foreign influence and perception-management operations.”
Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also signed the letter.
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
