Trump Cuts to US Media Outlets Celebrated by Chinese State Press

Chinese state media has welcomed Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding for Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, news outlets known for reporting on authoritarian regimes.

The executive order has affected thousands of employees, with approximately 1,300 staff at Voice Of America (VOA) placed on paid leave since Friday. While critics call it a setback for democracy, Beijing’s state newspaper Global Times condemned VOA for its “appalling track record” in reporting on China, saying it has “now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag.”

The White House defended the action, stating it will “ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.”

Trump’s cuts target the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which receives congressional funding and supports news outlets including VOA, Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Radio Free Europe. These organizations have received international recognition for their journalism in regions where press freedom is limited or nonexistent, from China and Cambodia to Russia and North Korea.

Though authorities in these countries often block the broadcasts—VOA is banned in China—audiences can access content via shortwave radio or VPNs.

RFA has reported extensively on human rights issues in Cambodia, whose former ruler Hun Sen praised the cuts as a “big contribution to eliminating fake news.” The outlet was among the first to report on China’s “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, where thousands of Uyghur Muslims have allegedly been detained—a claim Beijing denies. Its reporting on North Korean defectors and China’s alleged COVID-19 cover-up has won awards.

VOA, primarily a radio organization that broadcasts in Mandarin, was recognized last year for its podcast covering rare 2022 protests against China’s COVID lockdowns.

China’s Global Times welcomed the cuts, labeling VOA a “lie factory” and suggesting that “as more Americans begin to break through their information cocoons and see a real world and a multi-dimensional China, the demonising narratives propagated by VOA will ultimately become a laughing stock.”

Former Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin wrote: “Voice of America has been paralysed! And so has Radio Free Asia, which has been as vicious to China. This is such great news.”

Valdya Baraputri, a VOA journalist who lost her job, told the BBC such responses “would have been easy to predict” and warned that “eliminating VOA, of course, allows channels that are the opposite of accurate and balanced reporting to thrive.”

The National Press Club called the order undermining to “America’s long-standing commitment to a free and independent press.”

Founded during World War Two partly to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA reaches approximately 360 million people weekly in nearly 50 languages. VOA director Michael Abramowitz said the order has hobbled VOA while “America’s adversaries, like Iran, China, and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States.”

Baraputri, who rejoined VOA in 2023, expressed feeling “betrayed by the idea I had about press freedom [in the US]” and voiced concern for colleagues who might face persecution in their home countries.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic has appealed to the European Union to preserve Radio Free Europe, which reports in 27 languages from 23 countries, reaching over 47 million people weekly.

RFA chief executive Bay Fang stated the organization plans to challenge the order, calling the funding cuts a “reward to dictators and despots, including the Chinese Communist Party.” RFA, established in 1996, reaches nearly 60 million people weekly across China, Myanmar, North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, broadcasting in minority languages like Tibetan and Uyghur alongside English and Mandarin.

While Chinese state media celebrates the cuts, Chinese public opinion remains difficult to gauge due to internet censorship. Outside China, many listeners have expressed disappointment.

“Looking back at history, countless exiles, rebels, intellectuals, and ordinary people have persisted in the darkness because of the voices of VOA and RFA,” wrote Du Wen, a Chinese dissident living in Belgium. “If the free world chooses to remain silent, then the voice of the dictator will become the only echo in the world.”