China Watch is a self-proclaimed think tank and publication backed by China Daily, a propaganda institution financially supported by the Chinese Communist Party. 1 China Watch maintains a website covering issues ranging from foreign policy to Chinese culture. It publishes sections with data on China, opinion pieces sympathetic to the Chinese regime, and a list of global think tanks. 2 The site is not kept current, often going months or even years without publishing an article in some sections. 3
Background
China Watch maintains a website covering issues ranging from foreign policy to Chinese culture. It publishes sections with data on China, opinion pieces sympathetic to the Chinese regime, and a list of global think tanks. 4 The site is not kept current, often going months or even years without publishing an article in some sections. 5
China Daily, a propaganda institution financially supported by the Chinese Communist Party, backs China Watch. China Daily has taken tens of millions of dollars from the Chinese Communist Party and is registered as a foreign agent and has been since 1983, with the American branch receiving $11.8 million from China Daily’s Beijing office in 2018 alone. It had the ninth-largest budget of all registered foreign agents in the United States in 2019. 6 7
Controversy
China Watch caused China Daily to come under fire in 2019 when it was revealed that China Daily routinely skirted federal disclosure law by publishing Chinese propaganda in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post under the China Watch name as early as 2010 without disclosing its advertising purchase to the Department of Justice until 2012. 8 China Daily ran physical ads in American newspapers under the China Watch name that mimicked the style of real articles to lend credibility to pro-China propaganda. 9 China Daily also ran hundreds of China Watch online ads in the American outlets. An independent Foreign Agents Reporting Act (FARA) lawyer alleged that China Daily’s failure to disclose its China Watch activity violated disclosure requirements. 10
References
- Kakutani, Yuichiro. “China Flouts Fed Law to Publish Propaganda in NY Times, WaPo.” Washington Free Beacon, December 18, 2019. https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-flouts-fed-law-to-publish-propaganda-in-ny-times-wapo/.
- “China Watch Website – Connecting Thinkers.” China Watch. China Daily. Accessed September 30, 2020. http://www.chinawatch.cn/.
- “China Watch Website – Connecting Thinkers.” China Watch. China Daily. Accessed September 30, 2020. http://www.chinawatch.cn/.
- “China Watch Website – Connecting Thinkers.” China Watch. China Daily. Accessed September 30, 2020. http://www.chinawatch.cn/.
- “China Watch Website – Connecting Thinkers.” China Watch. China Daily. Accessed September 30, 2020. http://www.chinawatch.cn/.
- Kakutani, Yuichiro. “China Flouts Fed Law to Publish Propaganda in NY Times, WaPo.” Washington Free Beacon, December 18, 2019. https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-flouts-fed-law-to-publish-propaganda-in-ny-times-wapo/.
- “Foreign Lobby Watch.” OpenSecrets. Center for Responsive Politics. Accessed September 30, 2020. https://www.opensecrets.org/fara.
- Kakutani, Yuichiro. “China Flouts Fed Law to Publish Propaganda in NY Times, WaPo.” Washington Free Beacon, December 18, 2019. https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-flouts-fed-law-to-publish-propaganda-in-ny-times-wapo/.
- Kakutani, Yuichiro. “China Flouts Fed Law to Publish Propaganda in NY Times, WaPo.” Washington Free Beacon, December 18, 2019. https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-flouts-fed-law-to-publish-propaganda-in-ny-times-wapo/.
- Kakutani, Yuichiro. “China Flouts Fed Law to Publish Propaganda in NY Times, WaPo.” Washington Free Beacon, December 18, 2019. https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-flouts-fed-law-to-publish-propaganda-in-ny-times-wapo/.