Jon Ossoff, a Democratic Senate candidate in Georgia, hyped the reporting of Xinhua News – a Chinese Communist Party-run news outlet – with a shoutout on Twitter and has shared clips praising the advances of China’s Navy.
The unearthed remarks – occurring on Twitter in 2012 – are in addition to Ossoff’s financial ties to another Chinese state-run media company – a relationship he failed to include on financial disclosures and labeled “paperwork oversight” by his campaign.
On November 7th, 2012 he encouraged Twitter users to “follow @XHNews (Xinhua – Chinese state media)”:
Esp. during 18th Party Congress, #follow @XHNews (Xinhua – Chinese state media). #ff
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) November 8, 2012
Xinhua – funded by the Chinese Communist Party and regulated by the regime’s propaganda department – was recently labeled by the U.S. Department of State as a “foreign mission” of the Chinese Communist Party.
The State Department described Xinhua as an integral component of the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda organs:
“Over the past decade and particularly under General Secretary Xi Jinping’s tenure, the CCP has reorganized China’s state propaganda outlets disguised as news agencies and asserted even more direct control over them. He has stated “Party-owned media must. . . embody the party’s will, safeguard the party’s authority … their actions must be highly consistent with the party.” In short, while Western media are beholden to the truth, PRC media are beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Ossoff also shared a Chinese-language newscast from the state-run CCTV outlet hyping how “China’s jets landed on [an] aircraft carrier”:
Video: Chinese J-15 traps on aircraft carrier #Liaoning #China #PLA #PLAAF https://t.co/siJXY6sq
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) November 26, 2012
The writeup accompanying the video – a fawning profile of the People’s Liberation Army penned by the state-run media outlet – hails the navy’s “achievement”:
This achievement marks a crucial step in the development of China’s ambitious aircraft carrier program as landing tests of carrier-based aircraft are the most challenging to perform. “Capabilities of the carrier platform and the J-15 have been tested, meeting all requirements and achieving good compatibility,” the Chinese Navy said.
