U.S. Sen. Cotton and Rep. Jim Banks (R-OH) introduced a bill Feb. 24 to counter Chinese Communist propaganda. Photo of Cotton
U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-CO) and Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-OK) introduced a bill Wednesday (Feb. 24) to counter Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda and require the State Department to review whether the CCP’s United Front Work Department meets the criteria to be sanctioned.
The bill, called the Countering Chinese Propaganda Act, calls for the creation of a new sanctions authority to combat state-sponsored disinformation networks. The bill targets the CCP’s propaganda system, known as the United Front Work Department of the CCP Central Committee. The United Front Work Department is the overseas influence arm of the CCP regime, and its purpose is to promote the CCP’s interests abroad.
The legislation, which is based on the recommendations of the Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) National Security Strategy, would require the Secretary of State to review whether the CCP’s United Front Work Department meets the criteria for sanctions under this new authority.
The RSC is the largest conservative caucus on Capitol Hill. Banks said last week that it is part of a larger effort by the RSC to counter the Chinese Communist threat and hold President Biden‘s administration accountable for a weak policy toward China.
Cotton: Bill would end Communist Party’s use of United Front Work to propagate in U.S.
In a statement, Cotton said the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department is used by the Chinese Communist regime to spread propaganda, and the bill would end that ploy by the Communist Party.
“The CCP is expanding its disinformation campaign every day – withholding information about the origins of COVID-19, a pneumonia disease caused by a Chinese Communist virus, lying about its oppression of Uighurs and other religious minorities, and infiltrating U.S. universities and businesses. ” Cotton said.
“The United Front Work Department is involved in espionage, political warfare efforts, malicious dissemination of disinformation, use of overseas Chinese, and infiltration of (U.S.) educational institutions, all with the goal of softening worldwide opposition to the Chinese Communist Party and its policies.” The bill says.
The text of the bill cites an investigation released last March by the nonprofit investigative journalism website ProPublica, which found that the CCP’s United Front Work Department was linked to a network of “fake and hijacked” Twitter accounts that were secretly disseminating CCP propaganda about COVID-19 to a global audience.
Cotton said the CCP’s United Front Work Department “is just another venue for the CCP to spread its propaganda and unite foreign groups to stand up for the CCP.
Banks: Anti-Communist Agenda Is RSC’s Top Priority for Years to Come
Banks accused the CCP’s United Front Work Department of being directly involved in the genocide of the Uighurs and the oppression of Chinese Christians.
“But its ultimate goal is to spread these means of persecution across the globe,” Banks continued, “The leadership in Washington may have changed, but the political warfare in China [the CCP] has not.”
He added, “It has fallen to Congress to expose and confront the Communist Party’s disinformation. We can’t back down now.”
Banks said the RSC is proposing other measures, including the Stop Funding the PLA (Chinese Communist Army) Act, which would protect U.S. investments from going to the Communist Party’s military industrial base.
“For the first Time under my leadership, we have made fighting back against communist China a platform of the RSC.” Banks told last week. “This deserves our attention, and as the largest (Capitol Hill conservative) caucus, our members understand that this is the biggest threat we face and we have to fight it.”
Banks said the anti-Communist agenda will be the RSC’s “top priority” in the coming years.
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