A Window to the Free World
In December 1967, Xu Chenggang, a young man from China, left for a remote farm along the Soviet border, carrying with him but one electron tube: the most priceless thing he ever possessed. Xu had been just seventeen when he was exiled, condemned during the Cultural Revolution to years of suffering for his alleged anti-revolutionary ideas. But this little chunk of electronics was going to countermand his life.
With it, he built a radio and thus had one thread of connection to the outside world—a connection he would use to listen to a station that was to give him information and inspire him for some years to come: Voice of America (VOA).
In the decade to follow, Xu would secretly listen to VOA broadcasts with millions of others in China. The station fed dreams of constitutional democracy, human rights, and freedoms that were but shadows in the CCP-dominated state media. It taught English, it brought in the Prague Spring and Watergate, and it rejected anything consistent with the accepted view propagated in Chinese society.
For some people in China, VOA served as more than simply a news outlet; it was a lesson in democracy and a lighthouse of truth. However, that very symbol is on its way to being lost.
An Abrupt and Unanticipated Choice. When it was announced that former U.S. President Donald Trump had decided to shut down VOA, as well as to defund RFA, this took China completely by surprise. “How could the U.S. willingly give up such a powerful weapon in the battle of narratives?” asked one listener.
For several years, VOA and RFA represented some of the only trustworthy venues for Chinese people for independent news. They report stories like the persecution of Uyghurs, suppression of protests in Hong Kong, and Beijing’s brutal zero-COVID policies—all topics of discussion that China’s tightly controlled outlets would never touch.
The Chinese government has regarded these outlets as a problem for a very long time. For example, a state-run newspaper, the Global Times, celebrated its closure with the headline, “VOA has been thrown away like a dirty rag.” At the same time, however, and for those people who relied on VOA and RFA’s reporting, this was a heartbreaking turn of events.
The Power of Information
Throughout its past, the United States has developed expert methods to fight oppressive governments through media outlets. The Eastern Bloc citizens received their unmediated news reports primarily through Radio Free Europe and similar stations, which operated during the Cold War era. History suggests the Soviet withdrawal included exposure to Western broadcasts that offered democratic freedoms.
China has adopted the same media control approach, yet it executes it on a vastly bigger scale than during previous attempts.
The Chinese government has used billions of dollars to dominate news television and newspapers such as CGTN and Xinhua through full state control. This broadcasting strategy relies on social media platforms and influencers, along with cooperation with foreign media organizations, to present China as an emerging power that discredits Western positions.
The United States State Department issued a warning in 2023 about how Chinese propaganda has the potential to transform the international information landscape unless it remains uncontrolled. If VOA and RFA cease to operate, the outcome implies that such a reality may become increasingly possible.
The Human Impact
Chinese citizens viewed VOA as more than news programming because they depended on it for survival.
The parents of Zilu, in their 30s, maintained a habit of listening to VOA broadcasting while eating breakfast at home. Their surprise turned to shock when friends around them celebrated the news of the 9/11 attacks after they heard about it through their designated reading session.
Xuanyi started listening to VOA in high school, being a 29-year-old government worker at that time. Listening to all the news made him understand that his government provided deceptive information compared to its statements.
Now, he is worried that without things like the VOA, those who have found a way around China’s firewall would not necessarily be able to find their way amidst all the disinformation available. “They would get bored and step back behind the Great Firewall within a second,” he said.
Was it Worth It?
What with people touting VOA as ineffective or at best politically biased, it was under this condition that the executive order of Trump got through, citing news reports that some of its reporters posted anti-Trump tweets. Musk also deluded the station as “just radical left crazy people talking to themselves.”
Numbers speak for themselves.
VOA boasts more than 361 million people reaching them every week, with a budget of $268 million, small compared with the billions that China spends today on its propaganda machine. This particular station even has its Chinese YouTube channel with 2.3 million subscribers and some videos that rack up millions in views.
Radio Free Asia broadcasts in several languages, including Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur. For only a $60.8 million budget, it has been serving 58 million listeners every week.
Another editorial from The Wall Street Journal states: “The expense is paltry compared to the value for news undermining the narratives of dictatorial states.”
Key Strategic Victory for Beijing
America, therefore, does not close down its media by dismantling the VOA. Rather, it cedes an asset-prized ground within one narrative war.
Now, he is concerned that without resources such as the VOA, it would not be possible for anyone to come across a path through all the disinformation, even if they had figured out how to get around China’s firewall. They would get disinterested and retreat behind the Great Firewall within a second, he said.
