US terminates 5 cultural exchange programs with China terming them 'soft propaganda tools'

In the latest crackdown on CCP, the departing Trump administration has ended five cultural-exchange programmes with China saying that they were being used for Chinese propaganda and was not beneficial for the United States.

The terminations come after Washington imposed new visa restrictions that limited China's Communist Party members' stay in the US, signalling further de-escalation in relations with Beijing in the final weeks of President Donald Trump's term.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the cultural-exchange programmes were fully paid for and operated by the Chinese government as "soft power propaganda tools" which provided carefully curated access to CCP officials and not to the Chinese people,  who do not enjoy freedoms of speech and assembly."

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The programmes terminated by the State Department include - the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the US-China Friendship Program, the US-China Leadership Exchange Program, the US-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.

Each program allowed US officials to travel in China at Beijing's expense. Pompeo added that the US welcomes the reciprocal and fair exchange of cultural programs with China and mutually beneficial ones will continue.

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Trump targets China

This past week, the US announced new visa restrictions for members of the CCP and their families, cutting the validity of their travel documents from 10 years to one month.

The Trump administration has taken a slew of stringent measures against China as disputes escalate over issues of human rights violation, the coronavirus pandemic, trade, technology, Taiwan, claim over the South China Sea, Hong Kong among many others.
Trump's actions against Beijing may be reversed after Democrat Joe Biden takes over as the US president on January 20.

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