Why do so many Western media outlets sing the praises of the Chinese Communist Party? One reason is that many of the “mainstream media” have received disguised benefits from the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) in the form of all-expenses-paid trips to China, and sometimes “private dinners” for mingling. In exchange for their “favorable reporting” and “positive messages” for the CCP, CUSEF has provided them with “all-expense paid trips to China, and sometimes “private dinners” with a lot of networking.
The Dec. 29 issue of National Artery reported that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) files detailed a decade-long relationship between these so-called “mainstream media outlets” and the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF).
The media outlets involved include almost all of the mainstream Western organizations, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Reuters, CNN, Forbes, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, ABC News, Agence France-Presse, BBC, and Time, among others.
China-US Exchange Platform” initiated by Tung
CUSEF is a Chinese Communist Party-led organization launched by Tung in 2008, nominally calling itself a so-called “private civil society organization. In addition to cultivating Western media, the organization has targeted U.S. universities with donations to fund “policy research, high-level dialogue and exchange programs,” and is one of the masterminds behind lobbying campaigns targeting U.S. Congress, social elites, and state and local officials.
Dong served as vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is an important part of the CPPCC’s unified working front. According to the U.S. government report, the purpose of the United Front was “to identify and eliminate potential sources of opposition to the policies and authority of the CCP.”
“The United Front uses a variety of means to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments and other actors to support Beijing’s policies.”
There is no doubt that media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post are helping the CCP carry out this purpose, said The National Artery.
“China Tours” and “Private Dinners”
Axios reports that the 2011 FARA document detailing the agreement between CUSEF and the U.S. lobbying firm BLJ shows how CUSEF set out to influence “the media, influential people, opinion leaders, and public communication channels.
The National Artery reports that one of CUSEF’s activities is to bring in journalists and journalism students. For example, the BLJ organization arranges “familiarization trips” to mainland China for top journalists in order to get “positive coverage” of the CCP.
In 2009 alone, BLJ organized four trips that resulted in 28 Western media stories and 26 opinion articles for CUSEF, and were cited in 103 separate articles.
Given CUSEF’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party, some U.S. universities, including the University of Texas, have declined its donations, but this has not been the case for dozens of Western media outlets.
According to FARA filings submitted by BLJ, several U.S. media outlets attended private dinners at the home of BLJ’s CEO on behalf of CUSEF, trips to China, and meetings with CUSEF officials, among other events.
One filing, dated Jan. 1, 2012, shows that media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and CNN attended “private dinners” manipulated by CUSEF.
“The U.S. media has been bought and paid for.”
While CUSEF has come under criticism and pressure from the outside world, the U.S. media appears to have helped CUSEF succeed in reducing the pressure, with media reports only mentioning the influence the Chinese Communist Party exerts on U.S. universities, while avoiding its infiltration of the media and other actions.
The National Artery commented that this contradictory behavior from the news media implies that the mainstream U.S. news media has been bought by the CCP. For example, in the Washington Post article “China’s reach into U.S. campuses,” even when criticizing CUSEF, it was evasive.
Another outlet, Vox, prefaced its article on President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un by saying that the author, Yochi Dreazen, wrote the article “during a CUSEF-sponsored trip to China. The article is full of official statements from the Chinese Communist Party that “Beijing has won” in U.S.-China-North Korea relations.
As Foreign Policy magazine points out, CUSEF is not a privately funded nonprofit, but rather “a registered foreign agent funded by the Chinese Communist Party with close ties to the vast sector of Communist influence abroad.”
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