CNN published an article this week written by Communist China’s state-run news agency Xinhua that effusively promoted the Beijing Winter Olympics as a triumph of the tyrannical government’s coronavirus controls and green energy technology, with no mention whatsoever of China’s human rights abuses.
The article, titled “A Winter Sporting Event Like None Other,” was presented beneath a small banner that identified it as “content by Xinhua News Agency.” There is no other mention of Xinhua on the page, and no explanation to CNN readers that it is a propaganda service operated by the Chinese government.
The banner on CNN’s page linked directly to Xinhua at one point, although the link appeared to be broken at the time of this writing.
“This time, the most anticipated winter sports event has become even greener,” Xinhua wrote, gushing over the “green construction and infrastructure drive” behind construction of the Olympic facilities, and the ostensibly first-ever powering of all 26 sporting venues with “renewables.”
The CNN logo is displayed at the entrance to the CNN Center in Atlanta on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Ron Harris)
“The games will also put a focus on climate-friendly refrigeration. The speed-skating oval in downtown Beijing – which measures 12,000 square meters – will be the first in the world to use carbon dioxide for making ice,” Xinhua boasted.
Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy soldiers of a guard of honor look at Chinese leader Xi Jinping. (Feng Li/Getty Images)
In truth, China is the world’s worst polluter by a considerable margin, and it continues to build massive carbon-generating coal power plants at a breakneck pace.
Matej Svancer of Austria trains ahead of the men’s freestyle skiing big air qualification round of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Xinhua touted the “range of strict protocols in place” to provide pandemic safety, including the “closed-loop system of hotels and sports venues linked by special buses and trains to separate participants within a bubble and prevent coronavirus spread.”
This “closed loop” wound up getting popped by hundreds of coronavirus cases, including athletes and support staff. Not until Tuesday did China manage an infection-free day at the Olympics. Visitors subjected to China’s quarantine facilities described the experience as extremely unpleasant.
The New York Post noted the seemingly broken link CNN provided to Xinhua’s main website would have subjected readers to “articles praising President [sic] Xi Jinping for ‘steer[ing] China to unprecedented Olympic achievement.”
The Post asked CNN to “comment about how much it was paid to run the ad” from Xinhua, but evidently did not receive a reply by press time.
Fox News and the UK Daily Mail also “reached out to CNN for comment” but did not receive replies in time for publication.
Fox noted that CNN’s news division has filed “sharply critical coverage of Chinese abuses as it hosts the Olympics,” including articles about the oppression of the Uyghur Muslims and China’s sinister treatment of tennis star Peng Shuai after she accused a high-ranking Communist Party official of rape.
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