VOA and RFA staff face Chinese security intimidation and possible U.S. government retaliation

101 surrounding what happened next are murky, VOA’s management ended up pulling the plug on the interview in the middle of a live broadcast. Gong and several other employees were suspended and subsequently fired for insubordination. Gong is contesting her dismissal through the Broadcasting Board of Governors, while VOA management denies that it was responding to Chinese pressure to stop the interview or fire Gong. Chinese authorities have used both a charm offensive and tougher tactics to deal with both VOA and Radio Free Asia. China’s retaliation goes far beyond trying to block their transmissions into China. Security officials from the PRC government have been involved in a campaign of intimidation against some VOA and RFA staffers and their family members. In early 2018, relatives of some Uighur reporters on Radio Free Asia were detained by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang province. VOA’s Mandarin service has approximately one hundred employees. Although many of them write under pseudonyms, it appears that Chinese state security knows who they are. Five Chinese staff members interviewed for this report said that while visiting family in China they had been contacted by representatives from state security who have impressed upon them the necessity to change how they have reported on China. In one case, a young woman who is in the United States on a journalist visa and who does not yet have American citizenship was threatened with imprisonment during a visit last year to China if she did not reveal the names of her editors. She did so. Insome cases, those affected have contacted the security department at the Broadcasting Board of Governors. In other cases, worried about potential Chinese retribution against family members still in China, they have not. 58 Interview with FCC official. 59 O’Keeffe, Kate and Aruna Viswanatha. “Justice Department Has Ordered Key Chinese State Media Firms to Register as Foreign Agents.” Wall Street Journal. September 18, 2018. https://www.wsj.com /articles/justice-department-has-ordered-key-chinese-state-media-firms-to-register-as-foreign-agents -1537296756?mod=hp_listc_pos4. 60 Stubbs, Jack and Ginger Gibson. “Russia’s RT America Registers as ‘Foreign Agent’ in US” Reuters. November 13, 2017. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-media-restrictions-rt/russias-rt -america-registers-as-foreign-agent-in-u-s-idUSKBN1DD25B. 61 O’Keeffe, Kate and Aruna Viswanatha. “Justice Department Has Ordered Key Chinese State Media Firms to Register as Foreign Agents.” Wall Street Journal. September 18, 2018. https://www.wsj.com /articles/justice-department-has-ordered-key-chinese-state-media-firms-to-register-as-foreign-agents -1537296756?mod=hp_listc_pos4. Section 6 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020560