US axes Chinese cultural programmes on propaganda grounds
- US secretary of state says the exchanges are soft power influence tools offering carefully curated access to the Communist Party
- Decision is the latest in a long line of US moves to limit person-to-person contact between the two countries
The US State Department has scrapped five China-funded exchange programmes, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissing them as “propaganda tools” disguised as cultural exchanges.
The department said it “terminated” the Policymakers Educational China Trip Programme, the US-China Friendship Programme, the US-China Leadership Exchange Programme, the US-China Transpacific Exchange Programme and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Programme.
The programmes were fully funded and operated by the Chinese government under an American law called the MECEA, which allows US government employees to travel using foreign government funds, according to the statement.
“While other programmes funded under the auspices of the MECEA are mutually beneficial, the five programmes in question are fully funded and operated by the PRC government as soft power propaganda tools,” Pompeo said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
He accused the programmes of providing “carefully curated access to Chinese Communist Party officials, not to the Chinese people, who do not enjoy freedoms of speech and assembly”.
But the US still welcomed the reciprocal and fair exchange of cultural programmes with Chinese officials and the Chinese people, the department said.