The White House just handed the Chinese Communist Party a megaphone.
The Trump administration is expected to terminate all remaining employees at the Voice of America, one of five international media programs under the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The administration aims to eliminate funding for all five: Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
In an executive order, the White House said it “will ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.”
This is a massive moral and strategic misstep. The Voice of America remains a critical tool to disseminate and defend American values worldwide. Dismantling it and weakening the U.S. Agency for Global Media will only smooth the path for American adversaries to diffuse anti-Western media worldwide.
The administration claims it wants to save Americans money. Indeed, USAGM costs nearly $1 billion annually. However, the cost to our national security and global influence will be far greater. If the United States does not fund international media, our adversaries will. They already do.
China has poured billions into propaganda-peddling international media through China Radio International and China Global Television Network.
In Africa, China-sponsored groups train journalists, encourage African media to adopt Chinese editorial standards, and sell digital surveillance systems similar to China’s own Great Firewall, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
In Iran, state-backed media spreads Islamic propaganda outside of Iran. For example, HispanTV targets South American listeners with its coverage of global news. HispanTV has a history of extreme anti-semitic coverage and glorification of Iranian terrorist groups, according to a report from the Anti Defamation League.
If the White House succeeds and slashes funding to Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of Radio Free Europe, the only coverage of the war in Gaza available to Iranians will come from a government whose leader calls Israel a “cancerous tumor.”
Russia Today, Russia’s state-controlled English media program, thrives in African countries, thanks to backing from StarTimes, a Chinese satellite and media company. Now, Russian-backed misinformation campaigns proliferate across Africa.
Until now, the Voice of America was a bulwark against these forces.
The media agencies under USAGM produce locally relevant print, TV, and radio programming in 64 languages and reach 420 million adults, who live everywhere from Yemen to Cuba to Czechia.
Millions of people worldwide learned about and aspired toward American values through USAGM and its subsidiaries. Millions of people learn the truth about the regimes they live under thanks to USAGM.
It’s no surprise, then, that China is cheering for the destruction of VOA. The editorial board in Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, called VOA “propaganda poison” and criticized its coverage of China, repudiating VOA’s support for Taiwanese and Hong Kong independence.
If the Chinese Communist Party wants Voice of America gone, the agency is far more powerful and instrumental than the Trump administration realizes.
Voice of America and its partner entities are not bastions of objective journalism. No media organization is completely immune to bias, and Voice of America’s record is not spotless. The White House’s criticisms range from the asinine (VOA ran a segment on transgender migrants) to the grave (claims that VOA interrupted the broadcast of a Chinese dissident due to pressure from the Communist Party).
The administration is right that VOA must be subject to intense scrutiny — especially with regard to how it conducts news in China and other countries hostile to America. But none of its criticisms warrants ceding soft power to American enemies.
Defunding USAGM is not about saving money, it’s about surrendering influence. America must not retreat from the global conversation. It must lead it.
