Leaderboard: "China is global leader in imprisoned journalists for a second consecutive year, watchdog group finds"

Are NBC, Bloomberg and the rest of the gang still making their obeisance to Beijing?

From the South China Morning Post, December 15:

• China held at least 47 journalists in jail this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, just shy of the 48 it had in prisons in 2019
  About half this year are Uygurs reporting on conditions in Xinjiang, a CPJ official says
  

學習編碼 / كودنى ئۆگىنىۋېلىڭ

 

Workers walking by the perimeter fence of what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre in Dabancheng in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, about half the reporters in jail in China this year are Uygurs from the region. Photo: Reuters 

China has topped the global ranking of imprisoned journalists for a second year in a row, according to new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom watchdog.

At least 47 journalists were imprisoned in the country as of December 1, including those jailed this year as well as those serving longer sentences, according to a CPJ report published on Tuesday. Last year, that number was 48, according to CPJ, which is based in New York.....

I think the characters and script above the guard tower say "Learn to Code" in Mandarin and Uyghur.

Might be "Arbeit macht Frei" though 

My translators of Chinese return on Monday, before taking off for their second New Year celebration for the Lunar shindig and one of them, the Malaysian guy does the Deepavali - the Indian New Year, and Gawai in solidarity with the indigenous Dayak people on Borneo. There's something with the majority Malay Muslim population too but I think he does that just to go to the feast. Where was I?

Oh yes, journos getting locked up while one of China's foreign agents is filing the required paperwork. Keep in mind this is just one report from one registered agent:

72. During this 6 month reporting period, have you on behalf of any foreign principal engaged in political activity as defined below? If yes, identify each such foreign principal and describe in detail all such political activity, indicating, among other things,the relations, interests and policies sought to be influenced and the means employed to achieve this purpose. If the registrant arranged, sponsored or delivered speeches,lectures or radio and TV broadcasts, give details as to dates, places of delivery, names of speakers and subject matter.

 

The China-US Exchange Foundation: CUSEF, a non government non-profit entity based in Hong Kong, engages in promoting relations and facilitating exchanges between China and the United Sates. We shared information about the Foundation's work to various audiences and provided support for delegations visiting China. BLJ has also helped CUSEF to engage openly with academic and thought leaders, including through the use of salon style dinners. We also supported trips to China for the following media outlets: 

•Vox 

•Slate

•Boston Herald

•Boston Globe

•Huffington Post 

 

Embassy of The People's Republic of China to the United States: BU and the Embassy of China have endeavored to focus on the following key areas of work: 

1) media training;

2) media monitoring; 

3)social media; 

4)media relations;

5)message recasting; 

6)public diplomacy support; 

7) strategic communications guidance and support; 8)crisis communications and hot button issues; 

9) influencer relationship building and networking.

That's from this August 2020 FARA report: 

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5875-Supplemental-Statement-20200831-32.pdf

If interested some of the bigger outlets are named as recipients of China's largess in:

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5875-Supplemental-Statement-20130207-16.pdf  (pages 11 and 12)

And here's one from 2017:

We also supported trips to China for the following media outlets

• CNBC

• Newsweek

• Los Angeles Times

• Baltimore Sun

• Chicago Tribune

• The Guardian

• The New Yorker

• The Financial Times

• Slate

• Foreign Policy

• The Philadelphia Inquirer

• New York Magazine

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5875-Supplemental-Statement-20170627-24.pdf

It's a damn travel agency.

 

And:

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5875-Supplemental-Statement-20181012-27.pdf

And:

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5875-Supplemental-Statement-20170526-23.pdf

And:

https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5875-Exhibit-AB-20110714-23.pdf

 

And hundreds more.

As Axios said in June:

China's influence operations are getting harder to hide

Well, yeah, when you're running the schmoozefest shuttle.