Chinese state media hails Trump cuts to Voice of America

The Chinese state -run media welcomed Donald Trump’s movements to cut public funds for news media. American voice Radio Free Asia has long reported on the authoritarian system.

Decison affects thousands of employees 1,300 employees received paid leave from Voice of America (VOA). Alone after the administrative order of Friday.

Critics called this movement frustration of democracy, but Beijing’s national newspaper Global Times accused VOA’s “terrible performance” in China’s reports and “now was abandoned by its own government like a dirty mop.”

The White House defended this action.

Trump’s cuts are targeted for US global media (USAGM) supported by Congress and funds for news media affected by VOA, Radio Precia (RFA) and Radio Free Europe.

They were praised and international recognized for their reports in places where speech freedom seriously reduced or did not exist, from China and Cambodia to Russia and North Korea.

For example, authorities in some countries block the banned broadcasts in China, but people can listen to them on short -wave radio or get restrictions through VPNs.

The RFA often reported the crackdown on Cambodia’s human rights, and Hun Sen, a former authoritarian ruler, welcomed the cut with “a great contribution to removing fake news.”

It was also one of the first news media reported in China’s detention center network, and the authorities were accused of closing hundreds of thousands of Uyghur Muslims without trial. Beijing denied claims that people were willing to attend the “retraining camp” where people fight “terrorism and religious extremism.” The VOA report on North Korean defectors and the Chinese Communist Party’s allegations of Covid deaths were awarded.

VOA, a radio outlet that is mainly broadcasted on Mandarin, was recognized as a podcast for rare protests against cobid locks in China in 2022 last year.

But China’s World Times welcomed the wounds of calling the VOA “a lie factory.”

“As more Americans start to see the real world and multidimensional China, the story of the devil that VOA preaches will ultimately laugh.”

After being the former editor -in -chief of the Global Times, Hu Xijin wrote:

VALDYA BARAPUTRI, a VOA journalist who lost his job during the weekend, said that this reaction would have been “easy to predict.” She was previously hired in the BBC World Service.

She told the BBC, “Of course, if you remove the VOA, the accurate and balanced channel can thrive.”

The National Press Club, a major representative group for American journalists, said, “It weakens the US’s long -term efforts for free and independent media.”

The VOA, established during World War II to cope with Nazi Propaganda, is almost 50 languages ​​in almost 50 languages. It was broadcasted in China, North Korea, Communist Cuba and the Soviet Union for many years. It was also a tool for many Chinese to help you learn English.

VOA’s Michael Abramowitz said that Trump’s commands have suffered VOAs, and US anti -American opponents, such as Iran, China and Russia, are trapping billions of dollars to make false stories to distrust the United States.

Although he was from Indonesia, Baraputri, headquartered in Washington, DC, first joined VOA in 2018, but the visa ended at the end of Trump’s first administration.

In 2023, she joined in 2023 because she wanted to be a member of the organization that supported the fact that there was no prejudice without the government’s influence.

The recent cut left her feelings of betrayed by her idea of ​​speech freedom. [in the US]”.

She is also concerned about her colleagues who can now return to hostile and be persecuted for journalism.

one side, Czech Republic appealed to the European Union. To keep the radio free Europe. It is reported in 27 languages ​​in 23 countries and reaches more than 47 million people every week.

RFA’s Bay Fang chief executive said in a statement that the organization plans to challenge orders. Reducing the funds for this outlet is, “We are being rewarded by dictators and dictators, including the Chinese Communist Party, which likes to be better than an influence in the information space,” he said.

The RFA began in 1996 and reached almost 60 million people every week in China, Myanmar, North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. In China, it is broadcasted in a small number of languages ​​such as Tibetan and Uighur, apart from English and Mandarin.

“[Trump’s order] FANG not only alienated almost 60 million people who received reports of RFA every week to learn the truth, but also beneficial to US hostile people.

The Chinese state media congratulated the cuts, but it is difficult to know what the Chinese think if the Internet is severely censored.

People who listen to VOA and RFA for many years outside of China seem to be disappointed and worried.

“History, many asylum, rebels, intellectuals and ordinary people have been in the dark due to the voices of VOA and RFA, and Chinese, who lives in Belgium, wrote in X.

“If the free world chooses to maintain silence, the dictator’s voice will be the only repercussion in the world.”