In closing Radio Free Asia, Trump is doing the Chinese a favor
As a reporter who grew up in Taiwan and has freelanced for international outlets including RFA, I have seen how vital RFA is in places where authoritarian governments stifle independent journalism. Despite its funding by the US government, the agency remains editorially independent. And its list of journalism coups is substantial, including critical
This beacon of uncensored information has been a thorn in the side of the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party and other repressive regimes in Asia, from Cambodia to Myanmar. Why, then, is President Donald Trump trying to shut it down?
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RFA was expected to have released
'These individuals, who come from countries where they could face reprisal for their work with RFA, have made great personal sacrifices to advance US foreign policy interests overseas,' said RFA's president and CEO, Bay Fang, in a
One D.C.-based RFA journalist from a Southeast Asian country who requested anonymity due to concerns about his visa status called the situation 'impossible.' He arrived in the United States last year on an H1-B visa to work for RFA and now faces unemployment and the potential loss of legal residency.
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'The U.S. used to be a safe haven for those who fight for freedom in repressive countries. But now there is no safe haven left,' he told me.
Another RFA staffer in Washington told me she left Hong Kong in 2024 after the passage of Article 23, a national security law that tightened government control over foreign organizations operating in the city. 'Back then, our biggest fear was from the authorities of China and Hong Kong,' she told me. 'I didn't expect that the final blow would come from the United States.' She has hired a lawyer, but the threat of deportation looms.
Reporters Without Borders warns that Trump's shutdown of RFA is a 'gigantic gift' to repressive governments. 'Closing Radio Free Asia could turn these countries into complete information black holes,' the group said in a
But in China, the government and its supporters seem thrilled by that prospect. Hu Xijin, former editor in chief of China's state-owned Global Times, hailed the news of RFA's demise as '
RFA's closure is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle US-backed media organizations, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Next up could be domestic broadcasters that receive federal funds, including the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order
Shuttering independent media and targeting journalists has long been the playbook of authoritarian regimes. Now the same strategy is surfacing in the United States, a democracy built on the principle of a free press. When public broadcasters are defunded and journalists forced out, the United States edges dangerously close to the tactics it once condemned abroad.
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