The depths to which American propagandists descend have been noted by observers for a very long time. We have witnessed and experienced it our entire lives and the lives of those before us. Enabled by their dominant economic and military power since the Second World War, their propaganda has been an important element of their aggression against the world to achieve their ambition of global hegemony.
Using their knowledge of psychological techniques to manipulate people around the world and their dominance in the media of the western world and beyond, they have crafted a myriad of false narratives about their intentions, their character, their objectives and their constant wars against the peoples of the world; exemplifying Marshall McLuhan’s penchant observation that the “medium is the massage.” Indeed.
The propaganda campaign against China and Russia, among other nations, has reached new heights of intensity as a consequence of the Russian struggle to defend itself, and the Donbass Republics, against American-NATO aggression and fascism in Ukraine. We are all bombarded with it without let-up, a brutal psychological assault on the citizens of the west to prepare them for further conflict.
One of the worst propaganda organs controlled by the Americans, aimed at the people of Asia, is Radio Free Asia, which, on March 15th, published an op-ed, titled ‘Parallels Between the Conflicts in Myanmar and Ukraine,’ comparing the conflict in Ukraine with the events in Myanmar by presenting false reports of the war in Ukraine as fact, accusing Russia of crimes, and then stating that the government of Myanmar is doing the same thing to its people, backed by China. The author of the article, Zachary Abuza, is a professor at the US National War College, part of the National Defense University, which is financed by the US Department of Defense.
Apparently the Americans indoctrinate their military officers with absurdities instead of teaching them how to think strategically, or at all, when officers attending the College are fed lies and illusions as facts, as Abuza presents in his absurd piece. I won’t bother the reader with quoting from it. What is important about it is that Abuza attempts to smear China with slanders by linking China to smears against Russia while advocating more violence against Russia, the government of Myanmar, and China.
But why is Radio Free Asia publishing this rubbish in the first place? The answer to that leads us to Voice of America and Radio Free Europe and all the other propaganda organs the Americans created after WWII.
RFA, as the logo appears on its website, is fully funded by the American government. It claims it has ‘the mission of providing accurate and uncensored reporting to countries in Asia that have poor media environments and limited protections for press freedom and freedom of speech.’
Every word of that claim is a lie. It does not present accurate, objective reporting. All its reporting has the objective of supporting US aggression and dominance and no lie is too big for them to use. The reports are completely scripted by the US government. Their claims of being concerned about ‘poor media environments and limited protections for freedom of the press and speech’ are more than laughable when all news in the USA, in the entire west, is heavily censored and as, we see on all the western social media, in public places, freedom of speech does not exist. Freedom of thought itself is in danger.
RFA was set up in 1994 on the suggestion of, yes, you guessed it, then Senator Joe Biden, who wanted to create a government broadcaster to undermine China and other communist nations. President Clinton followed through and broadcasting began in 1996. Since then it has come under several US government agencies, such as the US Information Agency, but now is the responsibility of the US Agency For Global Media, which describes its purpose as, “vital to US national interests”, and to “inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.’
It is mandated by law, through the US International Broadcasting Act of 1994 to, among other things, “enhance the promotion of information and ideas while advancing the goals of US foreign policy.”
It is, in other words, a central propaganda organ to support America’s ambition for hegemony over the world.
The agency controls, not only RFA, but also Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the anti-Cuban, Office of Cuban Broadcasting, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and the Open Technology Fund, an organisation essentially directed at controlling the internet in US interests.
Funding comes from the US National Defense budget and other US government departments and the sums involved are substantial, approximately 800 million dollars a year.
The director of the Agency is appointed by the American president on confirmation of the American Senate. On January 20, 2021 a US-Taiwanese journalist, Kelu Chao (or Zhao Kelu) was appointed acting head of the Agency. She is the daughter of Chao Ting-chun, vice-president of the Taiwan newspaper Central Daily news and has spent decades serving as an American propagandist at Voice of America. She was appointed by President Biden because, he stated, she is able to promote his policy ideas, therefore her role is clearly a political one not that of an independent, objective journalist. But she has been criticised by members of the US Congress for rehiring an Iranian journalist at VOA who turned out to have fake degrees and was dismissed, because of their personal relationship. But her propaganda experience meant that the criticism was ignored and she remains in place.
RFA itself is directed by Bay Fang, who was appointed President of the organisation in 2019. Fang is another career propagandist who has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the US State Department, and also worked as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune and US News and World Report, where she enthusiastically supported the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and, since joining RFA, has concocted a number of false reports on China and North Korea.
Just a glance at its front page reveals all you need to know about RFA. The propaganda is so blatant – it is a central organ for putting out fake reports about the Uyghurs in China for example – that it is jammed by China, and Vietnam.
On March 18, RFA continued its propaganda with a report on President Xi’s telephone meeting with President Biden, concerning Ukraine and other issues, by repeating false reports that Russia had requested China’s assistance in Ukraine, by mocking world legal experts for supporting China’s refusal to accept American diktats, and then making the very provocative and dangerous claim that,
“Taiwan has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China, but Beijing hasn’t ruled out invading the democratic country by force to achieve what it terms “unification.”
The importance of this is clear. On the same day that Biden told President Xi that the US does not support Taiwan’s independence, and Xi warned Biden that they better match their words with their actions, an American propaganda agency stated that Taiwan is a separate country from China, a negation of US official policy that Taiwan is a Chinese province and part of China and total contradiction of what Biden was telling President Xi.
Such a statement can only be written by fools, who do not see that this will anger China, and further its preparation for taking back its legitimate control of Taiwan, or, more likely, but still by fools, was written as a deliberate provocation and insult to China and an open declaration that the USA has abandoned the One-China Policy, despite its rhetoric otherwise.
And to call Taiwan “democratic” when it was ruled by a military dictatorship until the 1990’s is problematic. Martial law was not lifted until 1992. During the White Terror, which lasted from 1949 to 1992, a period of fascism in Taiwan, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being anti KMT or pro-communist. Since the creation of the so-called Democratic Progressive Party, democracy in Taiwan is limited to effectively a two-party system with the DPP competing for power with the Kuomintang, which is more conservative but more willing to consider reunification with the mainland. But real left parties, labour parties, communist parties are non-existent, a dark legacy of the White Terror.
The USA is now openly involving itself in internal Chinese affairs by supporting a rebel government in Taipei, whose claim to be democratic is doubtful, and whose claim to be an independent country is founded on the fantasies of the DP Party and its leader, Tsai Ing-wen. They both appear to be intoxicated by American promises and illusions, puffed up by American propaganda organs like Radio Free Asia and the double-dealing of the US leadership. So beware of Radio Free anything coming out of the United States because the objective is not freedom for the people of Asia or the peoples of the rest of the world, but their subjugation and exploitation.
Author
Christopher Black is an international criminal lawyer based in Toronto. He is known for a number of high-profile war crimes cases and recently published his novel Beneath the Clouds. He writes essays on international law, politics and world events, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
