New reports today show that Chinese state media has reacted gleefully to the Trump administration shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) and all of its sister networks including Radio Free Asia, with an audience of 60 million people. The Administration’s executive order placed all VOA staff on administrative leave. Libby Liu, CEO of Whistleblower Aid and longtime President of Radio Free Asia issued the following statement:

“For 16 years I helmed the international media entity that broke through the censorship regimes in China, North Korea and other closed societies. We connected people to the reality around them and exposed real harm to real people. RFA reports on their food being cooked in gutter oil, their disappearing friends and family being sent to camps in Xinjiang, and the baby formula they were feeding their infants had been cut with melamine showed how these leaders poisoned and tortured their citizens to enrich themselves and their loyalists. 

“RFA also exposes China’s overseas influence campaigns – the deliberate work of the United Front around the world boosting false narratives against the US and to bolster their power on the global stage. It uncovered PRC espionage networks, disinformation campaigns, propaganda coordination between our adversaries and espionage networks in western democracies. Debunking fake news and lies, RFA’s Fact Check Lab currently monitors Chinese social media, picking apart the lies targeting people inside and outside China.

“This Administration is trying to take us back in time when the truth was silenced. We know that when an authoritarian controls information, they control reality. And if this happens, even temporarily, the damage may not be reversible. 

“Shuttering RFA makes the world more dangerous for Americans, leaves tens of millions of people in darkness, and exposes hundreds of courageous journalists and their families vulnerable to unfettered persecution.”