Several mainstream media outlets have been participating in fundraisers sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party, according to the National Pulse.
The China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a key part of the CCP’s United Work Front, “uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” according to the U.S. government.
As part of this strategy, the CUSEF has sponsored trips to China for the following outlets: Vox, Slate, the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe, Huffington Post, the Atlantic, Fox News, the New York Times, NPR, CNBC, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, the New Yorker, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, the Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Magazine, Yahoo Finance, the Washington Post, Forbes, Bloomberg, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Hill and MSNBC.
The purpose of these trips, according to the CUSEF, is to “effectively disseminate positive messages to the media, key influencers, and opinion leaders, and the general public” about China and its communist regime, the National Pulse reported.
According to the U.S. government, this strategy worked: In 2009 alone, CUSEF generated 28 media placements as a result of its four journalist visits and secured “the publication of 26 opinion articles and quotes within 103 separate articles” on behalf of the CCP.
The CUSEF also threw extravagant dinners for members of the media in various U.S. cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Reporters from the Washington Post, the Associated Press, TIME Magazine, the New York Times, and dozens of other outlets attended these dinners.
As a result, the CUSEF has largely escaped media criticism, the National Pulse pointed out.
There have been few mentions of the program in articles about the CCP and its influence in U.S. institutions. And the one time the Washington Post did criticize the CUSEF, they offered its officials a rebuttal.
