On Monday, I argued that the Trump administration should respond to China’s extraordinary coronavirus lying by expelling its ambassador to the United States, Cui Tianakai.
On Tuesday, China gave another justification for that action by announcing that all American journalists for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal must leave Chinese soil within 10 days. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs says this is necessary because “the U.S. approach to the Chinese media is based on Cold War thinking and ideological prejudice.”
China is also demanding that the big three U.S. publications, and those of Time and Voice of America, must engage in a bureaucratic waltz with Chinese authorities. That means those journalists can expect even more harassment as they do their jobs.
China says its action is a response to the recent U.S. decision to reduce the number of Chinese state media officials on U.S. soil. But that’s a lie. Unlike American journalists in China, Chinese journalists in the U.S. are actually a mix of intelligence officers and propagandists for Xi Jinping. What we’re really seeing here is China’s continuation of a long-running effort to end objective media coverage on Chinese soil. Alongside its recent expulsions of Wall Street Journal reporters, Beijing wants to control what the world knows about what’s happening on its soil. It wants trolls such as its chief western propagandist, Zhao Lijian, and liars like its dear Chairman Xi to have unilateral control over China’s tale abroad.
Beijing wants this because this is the only way to stop the world from learning of the true nature of China’s communist regime — a nature defined by the oppression and enslavement of its people, by the grotesque thievery of foreign property, and by the aggressive domination of the Indo-Pacific.
Hiding those lies is what this is about. Not the truth. Not by a long shot.
Evincing as much, China’s new restriction order complains about the “so-called freedom of the press.” Those words are telling. They speak to what freedom means to Xi and his minions: something “so-called,” worth only disdain. And note another interesting tidbit from today’s order — namely, that it also includes the territory of Hong Kong. Why? Because China doesn’t want you to see it pummel its own people for daring to demand so-called freedom.
As I say, the U.S. should take robust action. President Trump should direct Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to expel the Chinese ambassador. Yes, China’s allies in America will complain.
Yes, China might expel U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad in response. But that’s fine. We must stand up for our most sacred values.
