In case you hadn’t noticed, mainstream journalists see America as an irreparably racist nation. But many of them don’t have problems with China; in fact, some even write favorably of America’s greatest enemy. Now we know who they are, since The National Pulse did some digging and on Wednesday named names.

You’ll recognize many of them.

But first, a little background. These journalists were often guests of a Chinese propaganda group called the “China-United States Exchange Foundation,” which would offer trips in exchange for favorable coverage in US media.

However, the CUSEF calls itself “An Advocate for Understanding,” which they’ve been working on since 2008.

“China-United States Exchange Foundation is an independent, non-profit and non-governmental foundation committed to the belief that a positive and peaceful relationship between the United States and China is essential for global wellbeing.”

They posted a promotional video on YouTube on February 1, 2021, right at the start of the Biden administration. What a surprise.

It sounds all warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? However, the CUSEF uses CCP “United Front” strategy to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority” of the Chinese government.

But the Trump administration didn’t fall for the kumbaya tactics of the CUSEF. In 2018, a US government report on “China’s Overseas United Front Work” warned how the CCP would use the United Front tactics to its advantage.

“The United Front strategy uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”

In December, 2020, a list of media outlets that participated in CUSEF events emerged.  They included the usual leftwing suspects, like Vox, Slate, HuffPost, and The Atlantic. But the list also included alleged “news” outlets like the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times. News networks were there too, like MSNBC, NPR, CNBC, and yes. . . Fox News. But those are just a few.

Members of these media participated in “familiarization trips” to China. They also attended CUSEF meetings and dinners in major US cities. And now we know the names of individual journalists who benefited from these junkets and provide positive coverage for China.

Like Vox co-founder Ezra Klein.

Klein praised China’s Covid response in a tweet:

I keep hearing that China bough us some real time and our government wasted it doing nothing and downplaying the threat.

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 9, 2020

Klein also praised China and denigrated the US in an April, 2021, podcast which the New York Times transcribed:

“China has gotten high-speed rail right, where the United States has not. China is increasing its strategic R. and D. as a share of its economy in a way that we have let deteriorate. We’ve lived through a decade where China has been meticulously thinking about making those investments, marshaling those investments . . . . And we have, for the better part of a decade, ignored or derogated those levers.” 

There’s also Vox co-founder, Matthew Yglesias.

Yglesias tweeted on April 7 that the Chinese propaganda he saw while on a trip there was “clumsy.”

“Chinese propaganda always seems incredibly clumsy compared to some of the other big players in the propaganda space. I kept wanting to give the Party flunkies notes on how to craft better arguments when I went on a tour of China.”

But despite China’s awkward spin, Yglesias thought it would be a good idea for American and Chinese big banks to run the nation.

“Maybe a “Super Congress” appointed by Moody’s, S&P, and the People’s Bank of China should just run the government.”

Another of the journalists is Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune. Now Chapman has always despised Donald Trump. But I never expected that a libertarian whom conservative Townhall featured would praise a communist country. Yet here’s Chapman. Apparently those CUSEF perks speak loudly:

“China may have a bad human rights record, but you don’t have to take off your shoes for airport security.”

Plus, Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell, a recipient of CUSEF junkets, wrote in favor of the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, despite that pesky Uighur concentration camp issue:

“The Olympics gives China a second chance at human rights reforms”

But it’s not just journalists who eagerly regurgitate Chinese propaganda. Columbia University professor and economist Jeffrey Sachs participates with the CUSEF in videos. Sachs also co-authored an article, published on April 20, entitled “The Xinjiang Genocide Allegations are Unjustified.”

“There are credible charges of human rights abuses against Uighurs, but those do not per se constitute genocide.”

Shades of Walter Duranty. Duranty, as you recall, was Joseph Stalin’s stooge from the New York Times who claimed that the Ukrainian famine which Stalin instigated didn’t exist. “The ‘famine’ is mostly bunk,” he wrote, and added “any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda.”

Wikimedia Commons/public domain.

So now we have the Walter Duranty of the 21st century, Jeffrey Sachs.

But the conga line of pro-Beijing apologists extends all the way to the Biden White House.

Like Nick Burns, whom Joe Biden will likely tap as Ambassador to China. Burns has worked as a senior adviser to the Cohen Group, which works closely with DC-based China lobbyists. He’s also on the board of the Belfer Center at Harvard. The center has hosted cybersecurity groups in conjunction with Chinese Communist government and military officials.

Not only that, but in 2020 Burns said at an Aspen Institute event:

“We can’t see them as the enemy because we need them.”

It’s frightening to learn that American journalists, along with some members of the Biden administration, are easily swayed by the Chinese Communist Party. Are they truly that naive? Or do they believe that America is so irreparably flawed that a Communist nation looks better?  Or, perhaps worst of all, are they Marxists at heart?

Featured image: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library/cropped/CC BY 2.0.