Congress Wants China's Xinhua News Agency To Register As A Foreign Agent

In a recent report, a congressional commission recommended the United States government must make Chinese media outlet Xinhua register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). This development comes just days after Russian media organization Russia Today (RT) was forced to comply with the rules and regulations of FARA.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review (USCC), which oversees the bilateral relations between the two nations, claimed Xinhua is part of China's plan to change people’s perspectives towards them, Telesur reported. The congressional report also said the news organization had been collecting information for their home government, which is reason enough to bind them under the jurisdictions of FARA.

Compliance with FARA would mean top officials of the news organization would have to register themselves with the Department of Justice and also surrender any personal data and documents, when asked.

The report concentrated on the fact that Xinhua expanded at a rapid pace gathering 150 affiliates worldwide along with opening offices in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

In an earlier report by Telesur on Nov. 10, it said RT was the only foreign news agency to be put under the FARA act. But this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

FARA was enacted first in 1938 to counter pro-Nazi groups and quell the threat they posed to the U.S., the report said.

In the Telesur report, the editor of RT and Sputnik News, another Russian media outlet, Margarita Simonyan, said what the U.S. was doing was “illegal.” She added, “But we were forced to submit.” She also stressed such actions will make “routine journalistic work impossible.”

As a retaliatory action, Russian officials warned they will impose restrictions on American media organizations with their much debated law of foreign agents, The Moscow Times reported. The State Duma, which is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, even tweeted on the same.

Chairman of the State Duma tweeted, “By Monday, along with experts, amendments to the legislation on foreign agents concerning the media will be worked out. On Wednesday, November 15, the bill can already be considered in the first reading.”

Author and senior editor of AlterNet Max Blumenthal, told Sputnik Radio, “I've never seen any instance where Moscow has issued some kind of dictate from the Kremlin that's been followed to the letter by any RT personality. The shows are editorial and independent, and I think if there were a court case [the Justice Department] would have a hard time proving or demonstrating that RT is acting as a foreign agent."

He added the silence from the liberals, who claim to protect the freedom of the press under Donald Trump’s presidency, “really embodies the hypocrisy.”