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China bans BBC World News from airwaves after U.K. banned Chinese network

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BBC World News has been banned from airing in mainland China one week after the United Kingdom withdrew the broadcasting license for the state-sponsored China Global Television Network (CGTN) in an apparent tit-for-tat move from Beijing.

Last Friday, Ofcom, the U.K.’s media regulator, announced that it had revoked a license for CGTN to broadcast in the country.

The Global Times, an English-language newspaper in China, reported Friday local time that the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) has prohibited BBC World News from airing in the country, with the NRTA saying the channel had “infringed the principles of truthfulness and impartiality in journalism.”

In a statement posted to Twitter Friday afternoon, the BBC said: “We are disappointed that the Chinese authorities have decided to take this course of action. The BBC is the world’s most trusted international news broadcaster and reports on stories from around the world fairly, impartially and without fear or favor.”

A spokesperson for the BBC told this reporter that they “were never allowed in mainland China and Chinese homes. They limited our distribution and also blacked out our reports on Chinese subjects, so BBC World News was only available in international hotels.”

According to Reuters, the NRTA issued a statement saying an investigation concluded that the British broadcaster’s reporting on China “seriously violated” regulations that news organizations be “truthful and fair.”

The Global Times referenced “biased” BBC reports about China, in particular the BBC’s coverage of the authoritarian regime’s detainment of more than a million Uighur Muslims at camps in the northwestern Xinjiang province. In a story last week, the British outlet reported that, according to a Uighur detainee, systemic rape and torture are prevalent at those camps, which China’s foreign ministry has denied.

China’s treatment of the minority group has drawn worldwide criticism. At the very end of his tenure last month, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the regime’s actions against Uighurs as “genocide.”

“Chinese observers said the BBC has turned into ‘a rumor mill’ that deliberately throws mud at China, and the decision to suspend its broadcast sends a clear message that China doesn’t accept fake news,” The Global Times also wrote.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

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Electric Vehicle company with Chinese ties awarded $500 million of taxpayer money for 2nd U.S. plant

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With a little help from their Democrat friends, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party just announced the opening of its second plant in the United States.

Fox News reports Gotion Inc., whose parent company Gotion High-Tech is based in Hefei, China, unveiled plans to build a $2 billion lithium battery plant in Manteno, Illinois, alongside Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who cheered the project.

The announcement comes amid growing opposition to the company’s plans to build a billion-dollar factory in Mecosta County, Michigan.

In order to make the expansion happen, lobbyists for the Chinese Communist Party-tied electric vehicle company funneled cash to Democrats. “Individuals at a law firm registered as foreign agents to lobby on behalf of Gotion, a Chinese electric vehicle battery company developing a controversial project in Michigan, and wired campaign contributions to several top Democrats” reports Fox News.

“According to state and federal filings, Monique Field-Foster, an attorney at the Lansing office of the Warner Norcross + Judd law firm who is acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Gotion, donated to the campaigns of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Whitmer’s sister Liz Gereghty and Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Elissa Slotkin” the Fox News report continued.

“In partnership with the business community and the General Assembly, two years ago we set out to make Illinois a destination for electric vehicle and clean energy companies from across the globe,” Pritzker said in a statement.

“With the right incentives, nation-leading infrastructure, world-class workforce and booming clean energy production, we have transformed ourselves into an attractive location for global manufacturers. Today, we take another leap forward. It’s my pleasure to welcome Gotion to Illinois and to show the world yet again that Illinois is ready to be a player on the world stage.”

Pritzker delivered remarks late last week thanking Gotion for choosing Illinois to call “home” in a ceremony with leaders from Gotion High-Tech, including Li Zhen, the company’s chairman and president, who said he expected the factory to open in less than 12 months.

“All that we see here [in Illinois] are of enormous value to us: an enabling business environment, a supportive state government for the new energy industry and their highly efficient work, as well as the prospects of the State of Illinois in the coming years,” the Gotion president added. “We believe that Gotion’s battery technology will help to boost e-mobility in North America and the economic and trade exchanges between China and the U.S.”

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