Taiwan, Taiwan – China’s state media and pro-China commentators have welcomed the de facto shutdown of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) following the latest budget cuts by US President Donald Trump.
“The so-called beacon of freedom, the VOA is now dumped like a dirty rag by its own government,” the Global Times, known for its nationalistic commentary, says in a weekend editorial following Trump’s news outlet refund.
The Daily Tabloid described the VOA as a “carefully crafted propaganda machine.” Its main function is to “meet Washington’s needs by attacking other countries based on ideological demands.”
The comments were echoed by former Global Times editor Hu Si-jin. He described the dismantling of the outlet as “really satisfying” in a post on the microblog site Wybo.
Hong Kong-based author Nury Vittachi has written for state-run outlets, including China Daily, and has welcomed the end of “US propaganda operatives.”
“These groups can publish ‘news’ in 62 languages and take the pro-American sloping by impacting the minds of 350 million people around the world.
While he refuses to directly comment on the Trump administration’s domestic policy, the captain of the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman described it on Tuesday as a “dispute-ridden factory” with “the infamous track record in China’s reporting.”
The VOA and RFA have been thorny on the side of the Chinese Communist Party for decades, broadcasting news and commentary that challenged Beijing’s stance on sensitive topics such as Taiwan and the Wiger minority.
According to the US Global Media (USAGM) parent agency, China was one of VOA’s first target audiences, founded during World War II.
Over the decades, the outlet expanded coverage to 49 languages, ultimately claiming a global audience of 331 million.
Founded in 1996, the small RFA relied on a network of ground contacts across Asia to shed light on the off-limits of areas for most Western journalists, including Tibet in China and Xinjiang.
“Both RFA and VOA do what no one else does,” said Bethany Allen, director of the China Research and Analysis Program at the Australian Institute of Strategic Policy.
“VOA TV broadcasts and RFA radio reach people who have no access to independent information in other ways.
The RFA generated global headlines in 2017, when it became the first news outlet to report widespread detention of Uyghur Muslims at New Jiang’s so-called “Vocational Education and Training Centre.”
Subsequent reports on the treatment of Uyghurs by BuzzFeed News and Business Insider received Pulitzer Prizes in 2021 and 2022.
The RFA is also “exceptional” in “covering stories that unfold on China’s ground that would otherwise not be covered,” David Bandursky, director of the Taiwan-based Chinese Media Project, told Al Jazeera.
The VOA “has been extremely influential in its history,” Bandurski said.
“I have met many Chinese journalists and editors over the past 20 years. I remember hearing VOA in the shortwaves in the 1980s. It was a liberalising force,” he said.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order calling for the removal of USAGM “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
As of Saturday, about 1,300 VOA staff members had almost entirely on leave.
Trump’s USAGM eruption, which had a 2024 budget of $886.7 million, is a potential Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a Middle Eastern Broadcasting Network and an Open Technology Fund, established during World War II.
Trump and his allies have long run against the VOA and other publicly funded US media, denounced liberal prejudice and overly sympathetic reporting of US enemies.
Trump’s order has been widely criticized by press freedom organisations and mainstream journalists, but VOA and its sister networks have also been criticized for the standards of journalism.
In 2013, former VOA journalist Gary Thomas wrote in a review of Columbia Journalism that the “political false secret” at the outlet was “the insight of very inconsistent journalism in language services.”
“Some people have a wealth of journalistic expertise,” writes Thomas.
“The disparity is explained by the simple fact that it is difficult to find people who are fluent in a particular language and have the experience of traditionally necessary rigorous journalism.”
On Monday, Tracy Wen Liu, a former US-based VOA journalist, said in a post on X that some of the network’s “capable and ambitious” Chinese reporters raised internal concerns about the “lack of professionalism” in the newsroom and found that they had been shut down from the promotion.
“The leadership in the Chinese division of Voice of America and Radio Free lacks the neutrality that journalists should have, appointing people based on the guests they invite.