The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s Propaganda Department dictates the trend and content of the media’s report. Let’s look at the coverage by the popular and influential media The Paper as an example.
First of all, The Paper did not cover certain topics raised during the debate between U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). Ironically, part of the report’s headline stated that the candidates “avoided” many issues. The vice presidential debate covered at least nine topics—the pandemic, the presidential candidates’ health condition, the economy, climate change, China issues, foreign relations, Supreme Court, racial justice, and transfer of power. The Paper claimed to “comb through” the debate but only touched on a few topics such as the pandemic, Trump’s tax returns, and the transfer of power.
Secondly, The Paper pushed the CCP’s narrative on sensitive topics. For example, while the pandemic was the first topic in the debate, The Paper laid it out as the second topic, and only reported on Harris’ criticisms of the Trump administration’s pandemic response and her statement that she would not take vaccines approved by Trump.
As for Pence’s response, The Paper reported that he “vigorously defended efforts made by the Trump administration in preventing the pandemic” and “criticized that Biden’s plan was to copy what the Trump administration was currently doing.”
But The Paper did not say anything about the Trump administration’s “efforts” and did not dare to mention what Pence said about holding the Chinese regime accountable for the spread of the virus.
“China is to blame for the coronavirus and President Trump is not happy about it,” Pence said. “China and the World Health Organization did not play straight with the American people, they did not let our personnel into China to get information on the coronavirus until the middle of February.”
The Paper also omitted what Pence told Harris, “Stop playing politics with people’s lives,” after Pence challenged Harris for undermining “public confidence in a vaccine, if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration.”
Of course, The Paper did not bother to mention Pence’s reply, which was: “And the President also released literally stacks of financial disclosures the American people can review just as the law allows.”
The Paper briefly touched on the issue of taxes and wrote, “Pence intended to divert the focus of the debate to the economy and U.S. tax policy.” Pence had said that if Biden wins the election, “on day one, Joe Biden’s going to raise your taxes.” But Harris immediately reiterated that “Joe Biden has been very clear, he will not raise taxes on anybody who makes less than $400,000 a year.’”
Pence praised Trump’s efforts in strengthening the U.S. economy but The Paper deliberately left out his comments. Pence had said: “Joe Biden has said it twice in the debate last week that he’s going to repeal the Trump tax cuts. … Right after a time where we’re going through a pandemic that lost 22 million jobs at the height, we’ve already added back 11.6 million jobs because we had a president who cut taxes, rolled back regulation, unleashed American energy, fought for free and fair trade and secured four trillion dollars from the Congress of the United States to give direct payments to families, save 50 million jobs through the Paycheck Protection Program.”
On the issue of the Supreme Court, Pence asked Harris three times in a row, “Are you and Joe Biden going to pack the court if Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed?” He also made it clear to Harris, “This is a classic case of if you can’t win by the rules, you’re going to change the rules.” But Harris did not directly answer Pence’s question. Pence said to the camera: “Reelect President Donald Trump, and we’ll stand by that separation of powers in a nine-seat Supreme Court.”
The Paper’s report did not report on these nuances.
The Paper also reported that both candidates dodged the moderator’s question about peaceful transfer of power after the election results. It reported that Harris said, “Joe and I are particularly proud of the coalition that we’ve built around our campaign,” and she urged everyone to vote. Whereas it also reported that Pence said, “We have a free and fair election. We know we’re going to have confidence in it. And I believe in all my heart that president Donald Trump is going to be reelected for four more years.”
What The Paper deliberately ignored was Pence’s reminder to the audience that the Democratic Party “has spent the last three and a half years trying to overturn the results of the last election.”
Surely, the China issue is just too sensitive to cover for The Paper. Pence’s words would have pierced the heart of the CCP.
Pence said bluntly, “Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China over the last several decades,” and “Joe Biden never fought the trade war with China,” but “we’re going to hold China accountable for what they did to America with the coronavirus.”
