State Department Designates Four Additional Chinese Media Outlets as Foreign Missions

The State Department announced on Monday that it is designating four Chinese-owned media outlets in the United States as “foreign missions” or, essentially, arms of the Chinese government.

The media outlets are: China Central Television (CCTV), China News Service (CNS), the People’s Daily, and the Global Times.

Those entities are state-run entities and report to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), State Department officials said during a recent press conference call with a group of reporters.

The move will have no effect on how the Chinese outlets operate in the U.S. but will require staff to adhere to administrative requirements that also apply to foreign embassies and consulates in the U.S., such as releasing their personnel rosters and real estate holdings.

However, the designation has a huge symbolic meaning: It is official U.S. recognition that the Chinese media outlets are not impartial news outlets, but part of the Chinese government’s massive propaganda machine in the U.S.

“The decision to designate these entities is not based on any content produced by these entities, nor does it place any restrictions on what the designated entities may publish in the United States. It simply recognizes them for what they are,” State Department Press Secretary Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

Their designations follow on earlier designations on February 18, 2020, of Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corporation, and Hai Tian Development USA.

State Department officials said the Chinese Communist Party has, over the past decade, disguised state propaganda outlets as news agencies and has asserted even more direct control over them.

“None of these entities are independent news organizations,” said Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell.

“They work for the Chinese Communist Party. [CCP General Secretary and Chinese President] Xi Jinping has acknowledged as much — very forcefully, and he’s told them all, ‘You work for the Chinese Communist Party and your job is to tell the world China’s story and tell it well,'” he said.

“That means they are no longer beholden to the truth, they are beholden to the party,” he added. “[The CCP] has full editorial control over their content.”

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