While much of the Strategic Competition Act of 2021 may be written off as irate senators “hyperventilating” over the “China threat,” there is real money being authorized, $300 million annually to be exact, for specific operations to hamstring China’s economic and technological initiatives. Much of it will be spent to finance “independent media” and “third party” civil organizations to discredit the Belt and Road Initiative. It also allocates $450 million from 2022 to 2026 to finance the “Indo-Pacific strategy.” The legislation also calls on the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor to work with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to “support and train journalists on investigative techniques necessary to ensure public accountability related to the Belt and Road Initiative, the P.R.C.’s surveillance, and digital export of technology and other influence operations abroad direct [sic] or directly supported by the Communist Party or the Chinese government,” i.e., pay journalists to lie.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media, the agency Trump created to put the kibosh on VOA’s independent reporting in Asia, will play a more active role in “supporting independent journalism, countering disinformation, and breaking the firewall and combatting surveillance in countries where the Chinese Communist Party and other malign actors are promoting disinformation, propaganda, and manipulated media markets.” More money will also be poured into increasing broadcasts in Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan, Mandarin and Cantonese services.
