Chinese state media has reacted with enthusiasm to the Trump administration’s move to cut government funding to media organizations like Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA).
The Global Times, an English-language tabloid and a spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party, expressed satisfaction over the budget reductions to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which includes entities such as VOA and RFA.
“When it comes to reporting on China, VOA has a dismal history,” the Global Times asserted in a Monday editorial.
“From misrepresenting human rights issues in Xinjiang to inflating tensions in the South China Sea… from concocting the so-called China virus narrative to endorsing claims of China’s ‘overcapacity,’ nearly every malicious inaccuracy concerning China can be traced back to VOA,” the editorial continued.
The Beijing Daily, a publication associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), also published a piece praising the funding cuts.
This evident pleasure follows US President Donald Trump’s signing of an order to severely limit the operations of USAGM, instructing it to adhere only to the minimum standards required by law. He accused VOA of being “radical” and “anti-Trump.”
The White House stated the order would “ensure taxpayers will no longer support radical propaganda.” USAGM employed approximately 3,500 individuals and had a budget of $886 million in 2024, according to its most recent report to Congress.
RFA’s president, Bay Fang, remarked that the effort to eliminate RFA represents “a reward to dictators and despots,” including the Chinese Communist Party, who would prefer to operate free from scrutiny in the realm of information.
“This notice not only disenfranchises the nearly 60 million people who rely on RFA for truthful reporting each week, but it also serves to empower America’s adversaries at our own detriment,” she added.
RFA’s union stated that this action would “grant a victory to the Chinese Communist Party, which has a marked aversion to free media and truth,” and would “strengthen Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian regime in Pyongyang, where information control has reached unprecedented heights.”
The union plans to contest the decision, emphasizing that discontinuing its service would “betray the very values upon which America is founded.”
At VOA, which was established during World War II to counter Nazi propaganda, Trump’s decision has resulted in nearly 1,300 staff members being placed on administrative leave, as reported by VOA director Mike Abramowitz.
Veteran VOA correspondent Brian Padden expressed that it was “particularly frustrating” for Elon Musk to accuse VOA of anti-American propaganda to justify the shutdown.
“Throughout my reporting career, I have been shot at, assaulted, and even nearly decapitated by an exploding helicopter in eastern Ukraine. Back in 2014, I faced harassment from pro-Russian activists in Ukraine, who labeled my VOA TV crew as agents of pro-American propaganda,” he wrote on social media.
“Both Musk and those pro-Russian militants are mistaken. VOA does not engage in propaganda; we report the news, presenting perspectives from both supporters and critics of the president.”
Patsy Widakuswara, VOA’s White House bureau chief, stated on social media: “I know of no VOA journalist who isn’t fiercely protective of our charter and the editorial independence it affords, particularly among those of us from countries that lack such a principle.”
Southeast Asia continues to feel the repercussions of cuts to USAID, which had funded various media organizations, including local journalists investigating atrocities in war-torn Myanmar.
Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a notable authoritarian who transferred power to his son in 2023, publicly commended the Trump administration’s decision, calling it a “significant contribution to abolishing fake news, disinformation, lies, distortions, incitement, and chaos around the globe.”
However, on the ground in Phnom Penh, not all Cambodian journalists share this sentiment.
Sun Narin, a contractor for VOA in Cambodia for eight years, described the decision as a “dark time for us and journalism in Cambodia.”
“I feel hopeless,” he remarked. “The state of our press has deteriorated rapidly since several independent media outlets were shut down. VOA remains the only long-term outlet willing to disseminate critical information to the public, leaving people with no alternatives.”
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