Voice of America, the famous international broadcast propaganda agency, is established by the US government. In other word, it is funded by US taxpayers. From this perspective, spreading American values is the god-given duty of VOA. However, VOA’s actual performance in recent years can be estimated as “disappointed”, it seems to have forgotten its origin and position, and often speaks for the United States’ opponents instead of standing on the side of the United States.
During the 2020 epidemic, the CCP imposed a lockdown on Wuhan to attempt to control the epidemic by completely restricting the personal freedom of Wuhan citizens. The New York Times, Radio Free Asia and other media in the democratic world have pointed out that this behavior is a violation of human rights. On the other hand, only the Voice of America made a maverick gesture saying that the CCP’s lockdown of Wuhan was a successful model that could be replicated by most of the world. What’s more, the Voice of America compares the death toll of Covid-19 infection between China and the United States with a statistics from the Communist Party government, and draws a chart to highlight the failure of epidemic prevention in the United States. On April 10, 2020, the White House criticized VOA in a press release, which is the confirmation and response to this influence. The way VOA praised the CCP’s control to the epidemic by restricting personal freedom is in essence against the long-standing liberal and democratic values of the United States. This is an action about helping Beijing to publicize its political achievements.
Back on April 19th, 2017, the live broadcast of VOA’s breaking news interview with Guo Wengui was suddenly cut off. This incident is regarded as a big stain of modern American journalism and trampling on the freedom of the American press. According to the follow-up report of RFA, there are many reasons behind this incident. It’s unbelievable that the national propaganda organization set up by the United States government was forced by the Chinese Communist Party to interrupt its programs. As a news organization, the credibility of VOA was in jeopardy. First of all, it’s broadly believed the Voice of America chose to interrupt the live broadcast because of the pressure of the Chinese Communist Party. Before the live broadcast, the VOA’s head office in Beijing received a warning by MFA China. From the final result, the pressure of the Chinese Communist Party should have obviously achieved its goal, and VOA succumbed to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. Zhang Jing, the director of VOA Far East, is considered to be the direct person in charge of Guo Wengui’s broadcast interruption accident. His father was the first reporter of People’s Daily in the United States. Such a person with a deep background of the Chinese Communist Party has been placed in a key position in VOA to manage the propaganda affairs of the Chinese Communist Party. It can be seen that the employment of VOA has not been well observed, the office of VOA has been deeply infiltrated.
Despite all the ridiculous behaviors VOA has done, the financial budget for VOA in 2021 is as high as $252 million. American taxpayers’ money has not been used effectively. With such a large budget, VOA has missed a section that is so important to propagate the CCCP and has spent a lot of money on unimportant regional projects. It’s no wonder listeners have been saying for a long time that VOA has spent so much tax, and its effect is not even as good as that of Radio Free Asia, which has a budget of nearly 1/8 of VOA.
The law signed by President Ford in 1976 reads “VOA will always be a reliable and authoritative news source.” Taxpayers in the United States don’t need a VOA that abandons the freedom of the press, American values and positions, nor a VOA that can’t tell American stories nicely. If VOA doesn’t have this ability, it can distribute its high budget to Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other media organizations capable of exporting high-quality reports and telling American stories nicely. It will be too late if the future awaits us a future imprisoned by fake news and a news blockade.
