Proposed US Bill to Counter CCP Media Advantage

Three US Congressmen - Republicans Dana Rohrabacher, Randy Forbes, and Ted Poe - introduced a bill on September 13th, to counter Chinese state-run media’s advantage in the United States.

Rohrabacher said the US government must pay more attention to on-going broadcasting conflicts with Chinese authorities - that the US should increase its broadcasting into China.

The bill - Chinese Media Reciprocity Act of 2011 - would require the State Department to issue equal number of visas to Chinese state-media workers as China issues to US journalists working for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

In 2010, 650 Chinese came to the United States on I-Visas (international journalist visas), whereas only two American journalists are based in mainland China.

Chinese police have constantly harassed the two American correspondents in Beijing. And Voice of America and Radio Free Asia have been frequently jammed by the Chinese regime.

A former New York Times news assistant thinks the bill is excellent, but should include more.

[Zhao Yan, Former New York Times News Assistant]:
“Phoenix TV and CCTV are available on US TV cable networks, including Chinese-language TV…However, can we watch American CNN, Colombia TV, and Fox TV, as well as ABC, NBC, and other media, including VOA and Free Asia? Can they be openly aired or published in China? No, [we] can’t find them in China.”

China expert and lawyer Gordon Chang - author of "The Coming Collapse of China" - believes many Chinese journalists in the United States are spies.

[Gordon Chang, China Expert]:
“They are more than just journalists. Many if not, most of them actually are working for China’s Intelligence Service and we should not be letting them into the United States. We need to be much more careful about this…We need to have more US people in China.”

The Chinese regime has invested $45-billion to support state-run Xinhua News Agency and China Central TV (CCTV). In May, Xinhua launched its North American bureau in New York’s Times Square. It has expanded to seven offices, with English broadcast and 24-hour programming.