FCC Blocks Chinese-Language Station After Propaganda Claim Made

(Bloomberg) -- Regulators ordered a halt to programming being sent from the U.S. to a Chinese-language radio station broadcasting from Mexico after critics said it could be used by Beijing to air propaganda to southern California’s Chinese immigrant community.

The Federal Communications Commission said the programming flow to XEWW-AM in Rosarito, Baja California Norte, Mexico, needed to cease within 48 hours. The agency dismissed an application by GLR Southern California and H&H Group USA, but left them the opportunity to reapply.

The FCC has increasingly scrutinized Chinese companies as tensions grow between Beijing and Washington over trade, the coronavirus and security issues. The agency has moved to bar top Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. from U.S. markets, and is considering banning three Chinese telephone companies.

“What you’re seeing is concern across the entire U.S. government about Chinese meddling in our political affairs,” James Winston, an attorney for a California group that challenged the programming for XEWW involved in Monday’s order, said in an interview. “The potential for China to have a voice they can control that broadcasts all across southern California raises questions about what kind of things they might say.”

The companies’ application failed to include Phoenix Radio, which creates and supplies the programming and is owned by Hong-Kong based Phoenix Media Investment Holdings Co., the FCC said. Investors include the Chinese government and TPG China Media LP, the agency said.

David Oxenford, an attorney for GLR and H&H, didn’t immediately respond to an email and telephone call.

In a filing with the FCC, attorneys for the companies said the station is separate from Phoenix Radio, and it broadcasts Chinese music along with news, traffic, weather and other programming. During its months of operation “no claims of hidden messages or hidden messages or propaganda have been raised.”

The decision is a win for Chinese Sound of Oriental and West Heritage, a group that runs a community radio station serving Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles. In a petition the group said allowing GLR and H&H to proceed might allow the Chinese government to “provide its own propaganda programming.” XEWW’s signal is more powerful than any AM station licensed by the FCC, and could overwhelm signals produced by the group’s KQEV-LP. The station is among a low-power class with an approximate service range of 3.5 miles.

“Phoenix TV company was waging information warfare from a radio station across the border in Mexico,” Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said in a statement. “The Federal Communications Commission found on the basis of highly classified information that indeed the Phoenix TV company secretly used and maintained a studio to produce the radio station’s content, and put a stop to it for now.”

“Today’s decision sends an important message to the world that the U.S. will not allow China to exploit FCC loopholes and spread its propaganda over our airwaves,” Cruz said.

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