dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

McConnell rejects letting Senators vote remotely

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he would not change the rules to allow remote voting in order to address the threat of the coronavirus spreading. McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said to ensure safety, senators could vote in small groups, or even individually, but he would not make changes to allow remote voting. “We will not be doing that,” McConnell told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to discuss a massive stimulus proposal aimed at blunting the economic damage caused by the virus.

The House is not in session but could be back very soon. House officials are considering a plan to limit the chamber to 30 lawmakers at a time. The Center for Disease Control recommends avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people. Some Senate lawmakers are eyeing a rule change to allow remote voting, which is prohibited. Several senators are in their 70s and 80s and among the most at risk if they catch the virus. McConnell suggested, as an alternative, longer vote times to avoid having all 100 senators crowd the chamber. “We can deal with the social distancing issue without fundamentally changing Senate rules,” McConnell said.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/mcconnell-rejects-letting-senators-vote-remotely

China adopts war footing to control COVID-19 narrative, expels American journalists

The Chinese Communist Party is fighting the coronavirus information war like an actual war, going so far as to expel American journalists from China, Hong Kong, and Macau. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims the expulsions are a "reciprocal" response to American hostilities. But the timing, the weak stated rationale, and the fact that the expulsions are not, in fact, "reciprocal" suggest that this is more about China's broader effort to avoid blame for COVID-19.

“[I]n response to the U.S. slashing the staff size of Chinese media outlets in the U.S.,” the Chinese government announced Tuesday, “which is expulsion in all but name, China demands that journalists of US citizenship working with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post whose press credentials are due to expire before the end of 2020 notify the Department of Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within four calendar days starting from today and hand back their press cards within ten calendar days”. "They will not be allowed to continue working as journalists in the People's Republic of China,” the ministry added, stressing that the expulsions will apply also to American journalists working in Hong Kong and Macau.

Members of China’s state-run media have been subjected to “discriminatory restrictions” in the United States by the federal government, the ministry complained Tuesday. The U.S. had also designated five Chinese state-run media groups as "foreign missions” last month (that is, Chinese government-controlled intelligence and propaganda entities) and imposed a cap on the number of employees who are allowed to operate in the states. “[I]n response to the U.S. designation of five Chinese media agencies as ‘foreign missions,’” the ministry explained Tuesday, “China demands, in the spirit of reciprocity, that the China-based branches of Voice of America, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Time declare in written form information about their staff, finance, operation, and real estate in China.”

China alleges the U.S. government’s efforts to limit the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda operations in America have subjected members of China’s state-run media “to growing discrimination and politically motivated oppression." China also characterizes the cap on the number of employees who are allowed to work in the U.S. as “outrageous treatment.” “[I]n response to the discriminatory restrictions the U.S. has imposed on Chinese journalists with regard to visa, administrative review, and reporting, China will take reciprocal measures against American journalists,”' the communist country’s government warned Tuesday. Naturally, the ministry did not let it go at just that. It also accused the U.S. of having a “Cold War mentality” and referred to the expulsion of American journalists as an “entirely necessary” act of '“self-defense.” “What we reject is ideological bias against China, fake news made in the name of press freedom, and breaches of ethics in journalism,” the ministry said, warning elsewhere, “Should the U.S. choose to go further down the wrong path, it could expect more countermeasures from China.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for his part, scoffed Tuesday at the idea that China is merely fighting for press freedoms. “This isn’t apples to apples,” he told reporters at a State Department. “You all get to ask me whatever question you want, and I give you the answer. We know that that kind of freedom doesn’t exist inside of China.”

The Chinese Communist Party has adopted a war footing for its broader effort to win the COVID-19 narrative. It is literally rewriting history to absolve itself of responsibility for the viral pandemic it created. It is deluging news media around the world with disinformation portraying China as more capable, responsible, and competent than the U.S. And it is now punishing American journalists in an all-too-obvious effort to win protections for its propaganda operations in the U.S. American leadership would be wise to get on a similar footing.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/china-adopts-war-footing-to-control-covid-19-narrative-expels-american-journalists