Radio Free Asia (RFA), a media organization funded by the US government, announced on Tuesday (February 17) that it has partially resumed broadcasting services targeting audiences in mainland China after experiencing funding interruptions and near shutdown of operations in the previous fiscal year.
Bay Fang, President and CEO of Radio Free Asia, stated on social media that the radio station has resumed broadcasting programs in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur languages to audiences within China, and will continue to provide “independent reporting” in local languages focusing on sensitive issues within China.
For example, she mentioned that the Uyghur language channel of the station broadcasted a report over the weekend regarding the living conditions of children of some detained individuals in Xinjiang, indicating that minors are unable to receive proper education and are forced into physical labor.
Bay Fang also pointed out that the restoration of broadcasting this time relied mainly on contracts with private transmission service providers, but to fully rebuild the existing global broadcast network, a continuous and stable allocation of funds from the Congress is still needed for support.
Radio Free Asia and its sister organization Voice of America (VOA) have operated for years relying on funds approved by the US Congress and coordinated by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
Last year, Kari Lake, the acting CEO of USAGM appointed by former US President Trump, implemented a reduction in the operations scale of USAGM and other agencies based on the executive order “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” signed by the President on March 14 of that year, terminating relevant allocations to save taxpayer money and avoid “anti-Trump bias.”
According to the executive order, these agencies were required to “terminate all operations that are not specifically mandated by law” and “reduce their statutory function and related personnel to the minimum required by law.” RFA received funding through USAGM which led to mass layoffs and program shutdowns.
USAGM oversees the US federal government’s foreign broadcasting affairs, managing media including Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Europe, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, among others.
At the time, some bipartisan members expressed concerns about reducing resources for foreign broadcasting, stating that it would weaken the US information influence globally, hindering actions against the expansion of international discourse by the Chinese Communist Party.
Human rights organizations have long viewed Radio Free Asia as an important platform for addressing human rights issues in China and other authoritarian countries, especially in exposing the situation of ethnic minorities such as Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
Earlier this month, Trump signed a bipartisan spending bill allocating $653 million for USAGM to support foreign broadcasting projects including Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. While this amount is lower than the past two years’ levels of approximately $867 million annually, it indicates that Congress did not adopt significant cuts or closures of related agencies.
Rohit Mahajan, spokesperson for Radio Free Asia, stated that besides Mandarin-speaking regions in China, the organization has resumed broadcasting services to areas such as Tibet, North Korea, and Myanmar through partnerships with private companies.
Currently, Mandarin content is mainly distributed online, with plans to restore regular radio broadcasts in the future; Tibetan, Uyghur, Korean, and Burmese programs were broadcasted via shortwave and medium wave, but the satellite transmission system previously dependent on the US Agency for Global Media has not yet been restarted.
Public records show that Radio Free Asia was established in 1996, headquartered in Washington, and primarily targets information-restricted regions in Asia. Its operating model follows the Radio Free Europe system, with news reporting as the core, covering commentary and feature content, addressing issues in politics, human rights, social and economic, and cultural fields.