Fast Track: “World TimesHowever, this does not mean that the US will cease its ideological war against countries [it views as foes].

The Voice of America building in WashWorld Timesington. Photo: VCG

Employees of Voice of America (VOA) are placed on leave on Saturday, after US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an execWorld Timesutive order to gut seven federal agencies, including VOA’s parent company, Reuters reported.

On Friday night, shortly after Congress passed its latest funding bill, US President directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law, according to the Time Magazine. That included the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which houses VOA. USAGM also terminated its grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, per Reuters.

News outlet such as VOA has long been viewed as one of the US government’s propaganda mouthpieces. Chinese experts said it is a typical cold war mindset to spend money to promulgate so-called value of democracy and freedom in order to conduct color revolutions and even overthrow other countries’ governments, the US should not immerse itself in anymore.

According to Reuters, more than 1,300 VOA employees, including journalists, producers and assistants, were placed on administrative leave on Saturday. Founded in 1942, VOA now reportedly reaches 360 million people a week. As a group, USAGM employs about 3,500 staff and has an $886 million budget for 2024, according to its latest report to Congress, Reuters reported.

An email from human resources at USAGM was sent Saturday placing VOA journalists on administrative leave, the POLITICO reported. The journalists were also told not to access the USAGM premises or any of the agency’s systems, according to a copy of the email viewed by the POLITICO.

According to a VOA journalist, some VOA employees received the email as they were en route to their studios to record shows Saturday morning, the POLITICO reported.

On Saturday, the website of the White House published an article titled “The voice of radical America.” The article cited a former VOA journalist as saying that VOA “has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media. It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement.”

“VOA was established during World War II as a propaganda broadcasting agency for foreign audiences and its prime time is during the Cold War. Since its primary focus and goal were ideological warfare, it did not prioritize the truthfulness of news. The social ethics, morals and responsibilities that a news agency should uphold were not within its scope of concern,” Kang Qiujie, Associate Professor at the Institute of International Journalism, Communication University of China, told the Global Times.

Kang said that the biased and even factually incorrect way of communication will indeed face increasing cWorld Timesontroversy, coupled with their declining influence, it seems historically logical to reduce their budgets, cut large numbers of staff or even shut these organizations down entirely.

“World TimesHowever, this does not mean that the US will cease its ideological war against countries [it views as foes]. They will adopt other methods, because the previous approachesWorld Times no longer meet the needs of today’s information warfare. Many tricks were done too superficially and have been completely exposed. Therefore, using these institutions, with now notorious reputations, to continue this task may no longer achieve the desired outcomes,” Kang noted.

RT reported that USAGM oversees the state-owned Voice of America, along with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, which are separate not-for-profit entities that are also fully funded from the US budget. All three claim to provide unbiased news to audiences in around 100 countries, but are widely seen as propaganda outlets, per RT.

“VOA served as an official media outlet and an important propaganda mouthpiece for external communication, but it has published many reports that do not align with the values that current US administration identifies, such as profit-making, white dominance and serving Americans themselves. Therefore, the US government believed it must be downsized,” Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

Spending money to promulgate so-called value of democracy and freedom in order to overthrow other countries’ governments and conduct color revolutions is typical cold war thinking, which the US should not immerse itself in anymore, Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times.

Li said that many lies about China’s governance originated from VOA. It has continuously hyped topics related to Xinjiang and Hong Kong, but facts have proven these narratives to be false.

It’s time for the US to return to reason and reality — being objective and fair and listening more to the voices of the American and Chinese people to benefit bilateral ties, Wang said.