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.
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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.
Citing State Department officials, The Washington Times reported that the cancelled programmes were funded by the Chinese foreign ministry and the National People’s Congress’ Foreign Affairs Committee, and part of covert influence operations run by the party’s United Front Work Department. It said the programmes targeted employees of the US Congress.
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In a statement, the Hong Kong government described the decision as “short-sighted” and “based on false assumptions”.
It said: “[A] spokesman pointed out that the Hong Kong exchange programme had always been the responsibility of, and funded solely by, the [Hong Kong] government and resisted strongly false claims made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,” the statement says.
It said the itineraries were agreed by both sides and visiting delegations were always free to meet people outside the itineraries.
“It is thus simply flawed to say that the Hong Kong visits are carefully curated for propaganda effect, the spokesman said.”
“This is yet another of those unilateral and willfully motivated decisions taken by the US administration that not only undermine long-standing co-operation and engagement but also close the door on dialogue for the sake of political diatribe.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying rejected the allegations on Friday, calling them “another miscellany of lies” to undermine the US-China relations.
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But two analysts from the Brookings Institution said the drastic steps to disengage US-China relations economically, diplomatically and culturally were deeply worrying, even though Beijing’s aggressive diplomatic posturing and excessive domestic repression may partly justify Washington’s concerns.
“The people-to-people ties that have bound the US-China relationship together over decades of engagement have frayed and the fabric is very near unravelling,” Cheng Li and Ryan McElveen said in a joint commentary published on the website China US-Focus last month.
“While worrying Chinese actions have pushed Washington to rightly adjust its China policies, the costs of eliminating educational and cultural exchanges far outweigh the benefits.”
