Eye-roll plot thickens as petition demands probe into US broadcaster’s Communist Party ties
Petitioners want a White House investigation to determine whether US-based American Multimedia Television is linked to Beijing’s publicity apparatus
Hundreds of internet users have signed a petition calling on the White House to investigate a US-based broadcaster and its ties to the Chinese Communist Party after a Chinese journalist’s eye-roll set off a storm online.
The petitioners want the investigation to determine whether Los Angeles-based American Multimedia Television USA (AMTV) is linked to the publicity apparatus of the Chinese government.
“Based on the Foreign Agents Registration Act, we ask to investigate its fund sources and cooperation with the Communist Party of China and shut it down if it is found to have violated the law,” the petition on Petitions.whitehouse.gov says.
The plea came after Zhang Huijun, who claimed to be the operating director of AMTV, posed a long-winded, softball question to a Chinese official during the National People’s Congress, prompting a theatrical eye-roll from a journalist from financial news site China Business News, standing next to her.