US Ambassador accuses China of "harassment" with "propaganda ads"

By Tony Munroe

A week after a Chinese official newspaper published a four-page ad in an American newspaper touting the mutual benefits of trade between China and the United States, the US ambassador to China accused Beijing of use the American press to spread propaganda.

US President Donald Trump last Wednesday raised the supplement paid by the China Daily to the Des Moines Register – the best-selling newspaper in the state of Iowa – after accusing China of wanting 39 to interfere in the elections to the US Congress on November 6.

Trump's accusation that Beijing would try to interfere in the US elections marked what US officials told Reuters as a new phase of an increasingly intense campaign led by Washington to put pressure on China.

While it is normal for foreign governments to place advertisements to promote trade, Beijing and Washington are currently engaged in a growing trade war that has led to levels of tariffs on their respective imports.

China's retaliation at the start of the trade war was designed to strike exporters of states such as Iowa who supported Trump's Republican Party, Chinese and American experts.

Terry Branstad, US ambassador to China and former longtime governor of Iowa, a major exporter of agricultural products to China, said Beijing has hurt US workers, farmers and businesses.

In an opinion piece published Sunday in the Des Moines newspaper, Branstad wrote in China: "He is now redoubling himself by publishing propaganda ads in our own free press."

"By spreading its propaganda, the Chinese government is taking advantage of the beloved tradition of freedom of expression and the press in America by placing a paid advertisement in the Des Moines register," wrote Branstad.

"On the other hand, in the newsstands in Beijing you will find a limited number of dissenting voices and you will not see any faithful reflection of the disparate views that the Chinese people may have on China's troubling economic trajectory, given that the media are under the thumb firm of the Chinese Communist Party, "he wrote.

He added that "one of the most important newspapers in China has dodged the publication offer", although he did not specify which newspaper.

(Report by Tony Munroe, edited by Elaine Hardcastle)