People’s Daily refuses to publish article by U.S. Ambassador to China Pompeo: Chinese Communist Party hypocritical, afraid of people’s freedom of thought

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on the Chinese Communist Party newspaper’s refusal to publish a commentary by the U.S. ambassador to China, accusing the Chinese authorities of propaganda hypocrisy.

The statement, issued late on September 9, Washington time, said that the People’s Daily, the main Communist Party propaganda newspaper, today refused to publish an op-ed by Ambassador Terry Branstad that called for uncensored discussions and unrestricted interaction between the two countries to build a bilateral relationship.

In the U.S., Chinese government officials are allowed to speak directly to the American people and express their government’s positions through the free media in the U.S., the statement said, including Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai, who has published five commentaries in major U.S. news media this year. In addition, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and state-run media such as the Global Times and China Daily regularly use U.S. social media, which are freely accessible, to attack U.S. policies and lifestyles.

Pompeo concluded by saying that if Communist China truly wants to become a mature power and strengthen its relationship with the free world, the government under Xi Jinping should respect the right of Western diplomats to speak directly to the Chinese people, allow foreign journalists to return to China, and stop intimidating and harassing foreign and Chinese investigative journalists who serve the public interest. The refusal to do so shows that China’s unelected Communist Party elites are afraid of their own people’s freedom of thought and the free world’s perception of the way they govern China.

Previously, China refused to issue and renew journalist visas to several U.S. journalists in China, and the U.S. State Department has imposed visa restrictions on some Chinese state media correspondents in the U.S. on a reciprocal basis.

Last week, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg said that foreign forces were once again trying to disrupt the election, and that a number of accounts and pages posting false information had been removed. Twitter flagged the accounts of various government agencies and state-run media, including China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman and China’s Global TV network, and was criticized by Chinese officials for doing so.