Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) discussed plans to introduce legislation banning the distribution of China Daily from Capitol Hill with the Epoch Times, saying, "The Communist Chinese understand that America is for sale, sadly."
Rep. Hamadeh posted the clip to X (formerly Twitter), adding, "The CCP is constantly working to influence the United States government at the highest levels. We should not be helping its mission by distributing propaganda like the China Daily News in the halls of Congress. That's why Congressman Hamadeh introduced legislation to stop that from happening."
The CCP is constantly working to influence the United States government at the highest levels.
We should not be helping its mission by distributing propaganda like the China Daily News in the halls of Congress.
That's why Congressman Hamadeh introduced legislation to stop that… pic.twitter.com/V6RoIIc1cQ
— Office of Congressman Abe Hamadeh (@RepAbeHamadeh) February 7, 2025
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Within the clip, Rep. Hamadeh described to host and Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jakielek how, during his first day in office, "I walk in, I see the typical newspapers: Washington Post, Politico, which have their own sets of issues. But I look, and I see the China Daily News, and I was reading through some of it. And you have to be pretty discerning to actually discover that it was owned by the Chinese Communist Party and that they are registered foreign agents."
Jakielek asked if anyone indeed reads China Daily, to which the Arizona Congressman said they do, and "that is why [the Chinese] are doing it, and they know how to target it. They are going to the halls of Congress, lobbyists, and other organizations around Washington, D.C. because that is how the Communist Chinese know to put their influence into the United States' highest levels of government and the people surrounding the government."
Jakielek noted that the Chinese government had previously paid $1.6 million to newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy Magazine, and other media to publish China Daily inserts.
Hamadeh replied that while he cannot prevent private companies or individual readers from subscribing to or reading China Daily, "it goes to show you that the Communist Chinese understand that America is for sale, sadly, [and] that they know how to influence and get themselves into the papers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, all of them."
Last May, Representative David Schweikert (R-AZ) introduced the American Donor Privacy and Foreign Funding Transparency Act, which would require tax-exempt organizations to disclose in an annual report how much money they receive from foreign donors, where the money came from, whether or not they accepted it, and how much the organization took in total from the foreign source.