Responding to China’s ban on BBC World News, the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand should expel CGTN executive officers. CGTN is China’s major international news outlet, its version of Russia’s RT propaganda network.

Top line: Beijing has no right to promote its own propaganda in the West while simultaneously obstructing accurate reporting on events inside China. According to China’s Global Times propaganda outlet, the ban is eminently justified. Unofficial English-language messenger of China’s foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi, the newspaper claims that the BBC “deliberately throws mud at China, and the decision to suspend its broadcast sends a clear message that China doesn’t accept fake news.” Irony aside (China’s fake news machinery is second only to the Kremlin), Beijing’s action demands retaliation.