(Minghui.org) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on December 4, 2020 announcing that the State Department is terminating five programs that advance the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) agenda under the guise of “cultural exchange.”
The five programs include the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the U.S.-China Friendship Program, the U.S.-China Leadership Exchange Program, the U.S.-China Transpacific Exchange Program, and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.
Pompeo said in the statement, “Such programs, conducted under Section 108A of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act (MECEA), allow U.S. government employees to travel using foreign government funds.”
He added that while most other MECEA programs are mutually beneficial, the five programs in question are fully funded and operated by the CCP as soft power propaganda tools. Such carefully curated programs are only accessible to CCP officials, but not the Chinese people, who have been deprived of freedom of speech and assembly under the communist rule.
“The United States welcomes the reciprocal and fair exchange of cultural programs with PRC officials and the Chinese people, but one-way programs such as these are not mutually beneficial.” said Pompeo.
Category: Media Reports
