Trump's cuts to VOA may be welcomed by China's government

BEIJING: The recent move by US President Donald Trump to make cuts at Voice of America and other US government-run media may be welcome news for China's ruling Communist Party.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson refrained from commenting on Trump's decision Tuesday but took the opportunity to criticise the outlets.

“I do not comment on US domestic policy changes,” Mao Ning said when asked about it. “But as for the media you mentioned, their bad records in reporting on China are not a secret.”

The Trump's administration put almost the entire staff of Voice of America on leave last weekend and ended grants to Radio Free Asia and other media with similar news programming.

Radio Free Asia has an extensive Chinese-language service and frequently reports on human rights issues, including the detention of activists and repression of ethnic groups in Xinjiang and Tibet. The government refutes allegations of abuse.

Voice of America, also known as VOA, has a Chinese-language website that often publishes stories not covered by Chinese media, which is state-controlled. China ranks 172 out of 180 in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

The Global Times, a state-owned tabloid, criticised Voice of America at length in an editorial this week.

“The so-called beacon of freedom, VOA, has now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag,” it said.

Beyond China, Cambodia's former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ruled his country for near four decades as an autocrat, welcomed Trump's move.

“This is a major contribution to eliminating fake news, disinformation, lies, distortions, incitement, and chaos around the world coming from the propaganda machine that President Trump has stopped funding,” he said Monday in a written statement.