The United States government has designated the operations of six China-based media compes in the United States as foreign missions, the Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on Wednesday (local time).
The names of the media houses include; Yicai Global, Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News, Social Sciences in China Press, Beijing Review and Economic Daily.
"Today I am announcing that the State Department is designating the US operations of six China-based media compes as foreign missions. They are all substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government, said Pompeo at a press briefing here.
Pompeo said that the media compes are "substantially owned or effectively controlled" by the Chinese government and while they are free to publish content, they have been designated to alert the American people to propaganda distributed by the Chinese Communist Party.
"We're not placing any restrictions on what these outlets can publish in the US. We simply want to ensure that American people can differentiate between news written by a free press and propaganda distributed by the Chinese Communist Party itself. They're not the same thing," Pompeo added.
Pompeo later hit out at Beijing for the "factsheet" it issued by calling it an attempt to divert "any attention away" from its "own horrific environmental record".
"Just this week the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) issued a fact sheet, trying to divert attention away from its own horrific environmental record. China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, par none," Pompeo said.
He added further, "It is responsible for an estimated 30 per cent of plastic pollution in the world's oceans, more than any other country. It is the largest consumer of illegal wildlife and timber products."
Pompeo said that the Chinese Communist Party has failed to "honour commitments" it has made to the world as the US has seen them (Beijing) "break them everywhere".
"We saw the promise they broke to the people of Hong Kong. They've made a promise to the world to make information available how the heck did the 'WuhanVirus' (COVID-19) got out. I am not hopeful that there would be a full forensic review of what took place and how now thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars of wealth have been destroyed," he said.
Pompeo said that these are the most fundamental questions that the world is entitled to know and the CCP continues to break "the most fundamental commitments they made" to the world.
( With inputs from ANI )
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