Radio Free Asia resumes broadcasts to China after Trump cuts forced near closure

CEO said services have restarted after termination of grants led to criticism that US was ceding ground to China

Radio Free Asia has resumed broadcasts to people in China, its chief executive said on Tuesday, after Trump administration cuts last year largely forced the US-funded outlet to cease operations.

For years, RFA and its sister outlets, including Voice of America (VOA), had been financed with funding approved by the US Congress and overseen by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

Last year Kari Lake, a former news anchor appointed by Donald Trump as the acting chief executive of USAGM, terminated their grants, alleging waste of taxpayer money and anti-Trump bias. Critics decried the move, which led to mass layoffs, as ceding ground to China and other US adversaries.

However, Bay Fang, RFA’s president and chief executive, wrote in a post on LinkedIn on Wednesday: “We are proud to have resumed broadcasting to audiences in China in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur, providing some of the world’s only independent reporting on these regions in the local languages.”