In addition to news coverage, the impact of Beijing’s influence manifests in the choice of programming and commentators. Such subtle shifts have reportedly occurred even in relatively more independent outlets over the past decade. For example, Chen Pokong, a democracy advocate and political analyst based in New York, says that since 2004, a Taiwanese-owned North American paper has stopped publishing his columns; in 2010, access to his blog on a New York-based news website was blocked after it opened an office in Beijing; and since 2009, the hostess of a political talk radio show in Los Angeles has suspiciously redirected the discussion when he raised points tracing incidents of abuse or corruption to China’s authoritarian political system. The causes of such changes are elusive, but they occurred despite the apparent popularity of Chen’s insights among audiences. They also coincided with reported ownership changes that increased the influence of investors with mainland business interests. “As soon as a website or news outlet outside China starts to get popular, the CCP will go see how it can influence it,” Chen said.136
Manipulated Competition for Advertising Like their mainstream Western counterparts, Chinese diaspora media–particularly the printed press–face challenges to their financial sustainability due to economic and technological changes. Businesses in the Chinese community may be reticent to advertise with outlets taking a more critical stance towards the Chinese government, either because of direct or indirect pressure from consular officials.137 By contrast, Chen says some businesses advertise in the strongly Beijing-aligned China Press because they have received hints from officials that this will yield rewards for their operations in China.138 In other cases, financial challenges confronting independent media may not be the result of Chinese political pressures but rather of unfair business practices by competitors. Jack Jia, founder of the Toronto-based semiweekly Chinese News, known for its strong reporting on topics affecting the local Chinese community, contends that the circulation numbers of more Beijing-friendly Chinese-language papers are inflated, giving them an unfair advantage when obtaining revenue through advertising.139 Unclear figures in media directories, a lack of transparency and of independent circulation audits by publications such as Sing Tao, Ming Pao, and World Journal, and distribution route data relayed by an industry insider who wished to remain anonymous lend credence to such suspicions. Jia attributes the cause of such practices as much to a business culture where profit trumps principle as to political motivations. But the ultimate impact is that “it [negatively] affects our ability to grow and affects our ability to serve the … community.”140
36
Center for International Media Assistance