Rishi Sunak calls China “a threat to our national security” and Liz Truss talks blithely of “cracking down” on the Chinese-owned video app TikTok but there seems little either can do to reverse Beijing’s relentless reshaping of global media.
While Western news outlets have endured years of economic headwinds and cuts to resources, Chinese state journalism has been swimming in yuan since a global media expansion fund worth £5.4bn was created in 2009.
Cash from Chinese Communist Party coffers has funded a surge in overseas television and radio channels, foreign bureaux and correspondents.
Chinese-state media, reflecting Beijing’s drive for greater global influence, has signed partnerships with local outlets, from Italy’s public broadcaster RAI to media in Kenya and the Philippines. News from China Radio International or Chinese state news agency Xinhua is regularly…
