I would like to know the answer to that question! In his speech last night, President Trump said that the Communist Chinese had tried to pay American journalists to write negative articles about him. As I told Rowan Dean, I always assumed they did it for free. But seriously: is there evidence that American journalists are paid by the Chinese Communist Party?
Not really. I believe the just-declassified document that Trump referred to was a “CIA Note” titled “Sensitive PRC Reporting from 2018-2020.” That short document is a summary of reporting by, I take it, intelligence agencies. It is not clear when or why it was created. In any event, this is the relevant part:
It doesn’t say the Chinese paid journalists, is says they “sought to identify” journalists who had written negatively about Trump–that wouldn’t be hard!–and “pay them to write more negative articles.” If there was evidence of journalists actually being paid, we no doubt would have seen it. I think my original supposition holds: they did it for free.
The document is interesting, but not surprising. It says the Chinese wanted Trump to lose the 2020 election, and tried various means to weigh in against him. The fact that the CCP wanted Trump to lose is not in doubt; it is, as they say, over-determined. But the means specified in the document, including the idea of paying journalists, are not very exciting. Certainly there is no suggestion (here, at least) of any attempt to somehow manipulate vote totals.
