The New York Times has confirmed that it has deleted hundreds of ads on its website that were sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
A spokeswoman for the Times confirmed that “we made the decision at the beginning of this year to stop accepting branded content ads from state run media, which includes China Daily.” The Beacon reports that the Times had run “more than 200 propaganda articles in the last decade” on behalf of the Chinese government, ranging from covering up the Chinese mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak, to lying about the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China.
The Times made its decision after a group of 35 Congressional Republicans, led by Congressman Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a member of the China Task Force in Congress, demanded that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation into China Daily. As a result, the Chinese paper submitted a full disclosure of its activities in America since 2016, which revealed its extensive ties to many media outlets.Despite the Times’ decision to cut ties with the CCP, the Chinese government still remains entangled in many American media outlets. China Daily, one of many outlets run by the CCP, has also advertised with other major American outlets such as the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Earlier this year, CNN republished verbatim talking points from the CCP in their coverage of the coronavirus, including spreading outright lies that claimed the United States had handled the virus more poorly than China.