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Ed Webb

U.S. Puts New Restrictions on Chinese Journalists in U.S. | Time - 0 views

time.com/...alists-in-the-u-s-will-it-work

China censorship media journalists US USA statedepartment

shared by Ed Webb on 07 Mar 20 - Cached
  • the Trump administration is cutting the number of Chinese nationals allowed to work for Beijing’s state-run media outlets in the U.S. by nearly half, citing China’s expulsion of three U.S. correspondents last month and Beijing’s increasingly hostile actions toward foreign — and local — press
  • “a personnel cap” on five Chinese media outlets that the State Department reclassified as “foreign missions” last month — in other words, agents of foreign influence rather than genuine media outlets
  • “It could play into Beijing’s hands, which is looking for excuses to further restrict foreign media’s operations in China,” said Yaqiu Wang, China Researcher for Human Rights Watch.
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  • The state-run Chinese outlets impacted by the cap are Xinhua China Global Television, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution, and the Hai Tian Development. Collectively, they will now be allowed to employ a maximum 100 Chinese nationals as of March 13, down from around 160 now. And the administration may in future limit the time those Chinese nationals are allowed to stay in the country
  • “Crying foul about the ‘sick man of Asia’ op-ed allows Beijing to rally nationalist sentiment and redirect anger over the COVID-19 outbreak away from the government and toward foreigners,” Stokes said. In the longer term, he said the move is intended to convince Chinese people that Western news outlets are controlled by Washington, and therefore can’t be trusted.
  • During Monday’s press briefing, a Voice of America reporter asked officials if the White House expected Beijing to retaliate against journalists working in the country for foreign government-funded media like VOA or the BBC. One of the administration officials pointed to his earlier response, in which he said that further actions against any foreign journalists “would only end up hurting China,” because foreign businesses would balk at investing in a country that had gone “completely opaque.”
Ed Webb

Millions in Foreign Aid to China, Iraq, and More In Jeopardy Under Trump Administration - 0 views

foreignpolicy.com/...dollars-foreign-aid-iraq-china

US USA diplomacy aid assistance bureaucracy Trump statedepartment

shared by Ed Webb on 09 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Tens of millions of dollars in State Department funding to non-profit and humanitarian organizations were not delivered in time, current and former officials say. “They used an administrative process to create a choke in the system … They wanted to muck up and slow down the process with this type of an outcome in sight,” said one official familiar with the matter. “It’s the worst way to cut funding. It’s not surgical, it’s not smart, and it’ll have major ripple effects.”
  • Some current and former officials saw the restrictions as a way for the White House budget office to surreptitiously slash foreign aid funds, even as proposals to do so have drawn widespread and bipartisan Congressional backlash. Since first coming into office, President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly sought to hollow out U.S. foreign assistance budgets through budget cut plans and rescission proposals. Senior officials said it was an administration priority to review foreign aid programs to ensure they did not waste or misuse taxpayer money. Congress has repeatedly rebuffed the administration’s rescission plans. The move comes nearly two months after the Trump administration floated plans to slash nearly $4 billion in foreign aid funding for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development in a process known as rescission.
  • Because of the inability to use all the money, programs that support human rights in China and civil society in Iraq, among other programs, are in jeopardy and at risk of shutting down. At least four non-profit organizations and humanitarian organizations that operate in China are at risk of shutting down without the funds, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the NGOs’ work in China. Roughly $1 million to support programming in Ethiopia through the non-profit group Freedom House, and $1.5 million to support programming on religious freedom—one of the Trump administration’s top foreign policy priorities—were also impacted. 
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