VOA is one of the few ‘leaks’ in the totalitarian shield the Communist Party of China tries to put around its citizens.
— reader’s comment in The Washington Times
Should the Obama administration cancel Voice of America’s radio broadcasts into China? We checked the latest results on Sept. 3 and they were as follows:
Yes — 7% No — 90% Undecided — 1%
The poll has several telling comments from readers. I quote two:
“As college students growing up in China, we relied daily on VOA for objective news and different world views. Stopping broadcast would mean that a window to the outside world would be shut. It is a huge loss for long-term as well.”
“VOA is one of the few ‘leaks’ in the totalitarian shield the Communist Party of China tries to put around its citizens, barring them from all information and interpretation it doesn’t want them to hear, as far as it can. Many Chinese like to listen to it. I met many of them when I lived there. They should be able to.”
So much for a BBG member’s claim (S. Enders Wimbush) that “almost no one” in China listens to VOA on shortwave. They do listen and may share this information with trusted friends, but they are not likely to tell this to survey takers hired in China by a U.S. company (InterMedia) that gets millions of dollars from the BBG.