A report to the U.S. Congress released on Wednesday accused Chinese state media entities of involvement in spying and propaganda and said their staff in the United States should be required to register as foreign agents, Reuters reports.
According to the news outlet, the annual report of the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission said that while China had tightened restrictions on domestic and foreign media, Chinese state media had rapidly expanded overseas.
The commission said China’s state media expansion was part of a broader effort to exert greater control over how China is depicted globally, as well as to gather information. The report also highlighted the rapid growth of the Xinhua news agency and noted that it had offices at the United Nations in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and San Francisco.
According to the report, “Xinhua serves some of the functions of an intelligence agency” – by gathering information and producing classified reports for the Chinese leadership on both domestic and international events.
Reuters adds that under these circumstances, individuals working for Xinhua in the U.S., used a loophole in the FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act). First passed in 1938 in the lead up to World War Two to combat German propaganda efforts, FARA requires foreign governments, political parties and lobbyists they hire in the United States to register with the Department of Justice.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is working to overhaul FARA after Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, and a business associate were indicted for failing to register under the law. The reform could provide an opportunity for Congress to act on the commission recommendations, Reuters notes.
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