Trump’s cuts to Voice of America, other outlets hit
WASHINGTON—US lawmakers and rights advocates say the Trump administration’s drive to dismantle US government-funded news outlets, including Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), is a major blow to Washington’s hard-earned soft power globally at a time when Beijing is rushing to expand its sphere of influence.
Since its inception to combat Nazi propaganda at the height of World War II, Voice of America grew to become an international media broadcaster, operating in more than 40 languages online, on radio and television, spreading US news narratives into countries lacking a free press.
On Saturday, more than 1,300 Voice of America employees were placed on leave and funding for its sister news services was terminated, a likely fatal blow to the outlets.
The cuts are part of an unprecedented push by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to shrink the federal government, which they say wastes US taxpayer money on causes that do not line up with US interests.
The move came after Trump ordered the gutting of the US Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent agency, forcing a termination of grants to outlets under it.
Light on abuses
They include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts across Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, as well as Radio Free Asia, whose coverage extends across Asia, including China and North Korea.
Rights activists say the multilingual reporters of both VOA and RFA for decades shone light onto abuses by China and other authoritarian countries, raising awareness about the plight of oppressed minorities such as China’s Uighur Muslims.
Trump’s domestic critics call it a strategic blunder in US competition with China, which has poured billions of dollars into pushing Beijing’s narrative around the globe.
“The only people cheering for this are adversaries and authoritarians around the world, certainly in places like China and North Korea, where press freedoms are nonexistent,” Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Democratic ranking member of the US House of Representative’s select committee on China, told Reuters.
‘Ceding leverage to CCP’
The move also drew criticism from the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on East Asia and Pacific, Young Kim, while Michael McCaul, the Republican former chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, praised the RFA for transparent reporting.
“Gutting Radio Free Asia and other US Agency for Global Media platforms counters the principles of freedom our nation was founded on and cedes leverage to the Chinese Communist Party, North Korea and other regimes,” Kim told China Watcher.
