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For about the past 16 years, Chinese-speaking media outlets have seen a steady and systematic expansion in the United States. This development is mostly attributed to investments by the Chinese government since the majority of these outlets, especially for TV programs and newspapers, are either directly backed by the Chinese government or carry content that is in line with the Chinese government’s agenda. …
The method of infiltrating the American Chinese-language media is twofold: One is to sponsor local Chinese media groups that are registered as independent media and then impose news censorship through direct and indirect financial control or ownership. The other is to suppress independent Chinese-language media in the United States through political and economic pressure. …
Dr. Samuel Zhou, vice president of programming at New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) and a prominent scholar on media policy in China, summarized the Chinese government’s methods of infiltrating and dominating the overseas Chinese-language media: “One popular way is to build up a ‘united front’ by inviting selected overseas media to contribute at overseas Chinese media forums.
“The Chinese government runs these types of conferences every year or two and invites over 100 overseas media to attend.
“Individual meetings are arranged with some of the owners or chief editors of the local newspapers, television stations, and radio stations. Through purchasing shares, the government can gain complete ownership or own the majority of shares.”
One typical example is the Singtao Newspaper Group (STNG). STNG was established in Hong Kong in 1938. In the 1960s, regional offices were established in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles to publish Singtao Daily in North America. In the late 1980s, the Chinese government bought shares from STNG’s owner Sally Aw Sian.
The past decade or so has seen the transformation of Singtao Daily into a pro-communist newspaper. Sally Aw Sian has since become a member of China’s National Political Consultative Conference.
The current owner, Global China Group, established Greater China Media Services Limited, a joint venture with the People’s Daily’s Da Di Distribution Center in September 2002.
“Other strategies include purchasing broadcast time and advertising space from existing independent media and to influence what they can and cannot report,” Dr. Zhou said. “They also deploy government personnel to work in independent media, achieving influence from within their ranks.”This article is adapted from How the Chinese Government Came to Dominate Chinese Language Media in the United States, published on Chinascope. Copyright Chinascope.
