Shishir Gupta for Hindustan Times
The US Agency for Global media shall increase funding for Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin, Tibetan, Uyghur and Cantonese language services to counter China’s aggressive media investment in western countries.
The United States in its new Bill to counter China includes policies for Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, the problem areas of the People’s Republic of China, where it aims to uphold democratic values against China’s oppression. The 283-page bill, crafted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is designed to counter China’s economic and geopolitical power.
Under Section 136 of the Bill, which deals with how the US will support independent media and counter disinformation, it says the US Agency for Global media shall increase funding for Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin, Tibetan, Uyghur and Cantonese language services. It also said how China spends extensively on influence operations, even in western countries. For example, China spent $500,0000,000 on an advertising campaign to attract cable viewers in Australia, it said.
“The United States and European nations share serious concerns with the repressions being supported and executed by the government of China in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the Bill said adding that the government should continue implementing measures to address China’s specific abuses in these regions and should build joint mechanisms and programmes to prevent the export of China’s authoritarian governance model to countries around the world,” the Bill, unveiled early in April, says.
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