US ends China-funded exchange programmes, calls them 'propaganda tools'
05 December, 2020
The US STATE DEPT. said Friday (Dec 5) it was terminating five Chinese-funded exchange programmes with the United States, calling them propaganda equipment for Beijing.
Secretary of Express Mike Pompeo said in a statement these programmes, conducted under a good US laws called the MECEA that allows American government staff to visit using foreign government cash, were "disguised as 'cultural exchanges'".
"While different programmes funded under the auspices of the MECEA will be mutually beneficial, the five programmes involved happen to be fully funded and operated by the PRC government as soft electricity propaganda tools," Pompeo said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
"They provide carefully curated usage of Chinese Communist Party officials, never to the Chinese people, who do not enjoy freedoms of speech and assembly."
The termination is the most recent reflection of President Donald Trump's sharply antagonistic relationship with China.
Under Trump, the US launched a trade war with Beijing, has challenged Beijing's territorial ambitions in disputed Asian waters, criticized its crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong and blamed China's handling of the original coronavirus outbreak for the pandemic now engulfing the globe.
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