Mic Drop: America’s soft power in Asia – unplugged

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Mic Drop: America’s Soft Power in Asia – Unplugged"

Click Here
Host: Dina Temple-Raston
Release Date: May 9, 2025

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Mic Drop: America’s Soft Power in Asia – Unplugged," Dina Temple-Raston delves deep into the pivotal role of Radio Free Asia (RFA) in shaping and challenging the digital and informational landscape of Asia. The episode explores RFA's history, its investigative reporting that has impacted U.S. foreign policy, and the existential threats it faces from shifting political winds in the United States.

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The Genesis and Mission of Radio Free Asia

BEI Feng, President of Radio Free Asia provides a foundational understanding of RFA's origin and mission.

• Formation Post-Tiananmen Square:
  "Radio Free Asia was created after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989." (02:00)

• Initial Broadcasting Efforts:
  "It wasn't until 1996 that we put out our first broadcast in Mandarin over shortwave into China." (02:15)

RFA was established as a response to oppressive regimes, aiming to shed light on human rights abuses and provide uncensored news to populations under authoritarian rule.

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Impactful Reporting on Human Rights Abuses

RFA's commitment to uncovering the truth has led to significant revelations about human rights violations in Asia.

Uncovering Atrocities in Burma

• Evidence of Atrocities:
  "A villager picked up a cell phone that was actually dropped by a junta soldier within it... selfies that he took with his, you know, fellow soldiers with people that they had massacred." (03:04)

• Verification and Breakthrough Reporting:
  "There had been a massacre in this particular village of Sagang." (03:47)

RFA's investigative journalism brought to light the grim realities in regions where information is tightly controlled, forcing international attention and response.

Revealing the Uyghur Genocide

• In-Depth Reporting:
  "One guy calls hundreds of police stations over the course of a night... he just asked a Communist Party representative in Xinjiang... what he was being ordered to do. And he said it was, you know, 40% of the adult population that he was supposed to be rounding up and putting into these camps." (04:07)

• Policy Impact:
  "And it ended up with, you know, the first Trump administration declaring it to be a genocide against the Uyghur people." (05:32)

RFA's reporting not only informed the public but also influenced U.S. foreign policy, leading to legislative actions like the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act.

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Investigating the COVID-19 Cover-Up in Wuhan

RFA played a crucial role in uncovering the true scale of the COVID-19 outbreak in its early stages.

• Initial Observations:
  "We suddenly noticed that there was a surge of, you know, pings people trying to reach us from inside Wuhan." (07:32)

• Uncovering the Truth:
  "They reported, you know, a few thousand at the time. And our reporters called the crematories in the Wuhan area and got the numbers... found that the number was 100 times that." (07:57)

RFA's diligent reporting contradicted official Chinese narratives, later confirmed by U.S. intelligence reports, highlighting the organization's role in combating misinformation.

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Threats to RFA’s Existence: Funding Cuts Under the Trump Administration

The episode takes a critical turn as it discusses the existential threats faced by RFA due to political maneuvering in the U.S.

• Funding Termination:
  "We had to have some resolution, otherwise we will have to go into bankruptcy proceedings." (11:06)

• Impact of Budget Cuts:
  "This grant, $60 million is our annual budget that we're given and it's peanuts compared with the billions of dollars that China puts in every year into its global media influence campaign." (09:16)

The Trump administration's decision to terminate funding was met with surprise and alarm within RFA, especially given the organization's significant impact relative to its budget.

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Legal Battles and Temporary Reprieve

Amidst the funding crisis, RFA found a glimmer of hope through legal intervention.

• Court Ruling:
  "A DC district judge has ordered the Trump administration to cease attempts to shut down government funded radio networks... it was probably unconstitutional." (10:26)

• Uncertain Future:
  While the judge's ruling provides a temporary reprieve, the Trump administration is poised to appeal, leaving RFA's future in limbo.

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Operational Challenges and Workforce Impact

The funding cuts have had a drastic effect on RFA's operations and personnel.

• Mass Layoffs:
  "On May 2, RFA told its staff that it was eliminating 280 positions in the United States. That's about 90% of its domestic workforce." (12:32)

• Protecting Vulnerable Staff:
  "From the beginning, we made the decision to first and foremost try to protect our visa holders... 14 come from countries where they would be immediately arrested if they went back." (11:12)

The reduction in workforce not only cripples RFA's ability to report but also endangers staff members from authoritarian backgrounds.

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Response from Authoritarian Regimes

The cessation of RFA's funding has been welcomed by Chinese state media, signaling a setback in the battle against misinformation.

• Celebratory Social Media Posts:
  "They are happy because one of the strongest voices that challenges their narrative is gone." (10:04)

This response underscores the vital role RFA plays in providing unbiased information and the lengths to which authoritarian regimes will go to suppress dissenting voices.

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Conclusion and Future Outlook

The episode concludes with reflections on the broader implications of RFA's potential shutdown.

• Endangered Information Flow:
  "If Radio Free Asia stops broadcasting, lots of important news will go uncovered." (11:43)

• Battle for Public Airwaves:
  The introduction of One America News Network as a new news feed for Voice of America raises concerns about the homogenization of information sources controlled by the government.

Dina Temple-Raston's "Mic Drop: America’s Soft Power in Asia – Unplugged" paints a compelling picture of Radio Free Asia's indispensable role in promoting transparency and democracy in Asia, while simultaneously highlighting the precarious nature of soft power initiatives in the face of political adversities.

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Notable Quotes

• BEI Feng on RFA’s Impact:
  "We need to be this voice for people who can't speak out. We need people to know about what's happening in our homeland." (05:05)

• BEI Feng on Funding Cuts:
  "It was clear when the relatives were detained that it was because of the reporting that their sons, their daughters... was because of what these reporters were doing at Radio Free Asia." (05:05)

• BEI Feng on Potential Bankruptcy:
  "We have to have some resolution, otherwise we will have to go into bankruptcy proceedings." (11:06)

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Timestamps Reference

• 02:00: Introduction of Radio Free Asia
• 02:15: First Mandarin broadcast into China
• 03:04: Evidence of atrocities in Burma
• 03:47: Reporting on Sagang massacre
• 04:07: Investigating Uyghur detentions
• 04:37: Information dissemination in Xinjiang
• 05:05: Detentions linked to RFA reporting
• 05:32: Policy changes recognizing genocide
• 07:32: Noticing surge in communications from Wuhan
• 07:57: Uncovering COVID death toll
• 08:34: Impact of RFA’s reporting
• 09:16: Reaction to funding termination
• 10:04: Authoritarian response to funding cuts
• 10:26: Legal intervention to preserve funding
• 11:06: Financial implications for RFA
• 11:12: Protecting vulnerable staff members
• 11:43: Consequences of RFA shutdown
• 12:32: Workforce reductions at RFA

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the critical discussions and insights presented in the episode, providing a clear understanding of Radio Free Asia's significance, the challenges it faces, and the broader implications for media freedom and U.S. soft power in Asia.

Transcript

[Dina Temple Raston]

From Recorded Future News and prx, this is Click Here. I'm sure people have told you this. You have a lovely radio voice.

[BEI Feng]

Oh, thank you. I haven't been told that I hate the sound of my voice, so.

[Dina Temple Raston]

Which makes you a perfect radio person. From Recorded Future News, this is Clickier's Mic Drop. A longer listen to one of our favorite interviews of the week. I'm Dina Temple Raston. On Tuesday, we took you behind the scenes of Radio Free Europe, a broadcaster that's been a thorn in the side of authoritarian regimes since the Cold War. Today we take a look at its sister station, Radio Free Asia, and dig into what we can expect if the Trump administration succeeds in silencing it.

[BEI Feng]

I think a lot of mainstream press might see us almost like primary source material.

[Dina Temple Raston]

RFA's reporters have a history of uncovering genocide, war crimes, and disinformation campaigns. They don't just follow the news cycle, they often lead it. And now they're fighting to survive. Stay with us.

[Unknown]

Most of our media are owned by a handful of tech billionaires. But there's one place that's still still operates like the Internet was never invented. On the new season of the Divided Dial from onthemedia, we're exploring shortwave radio, where prayer and propaganda coexist with news and conspiracy theories and where an existential battle for the public airwaves is playing out right now. Listen to OnTheMedia, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dina Temple Raston]

I'm Dina Templewurst and this is Click Here's Mic Drop.

[BEI Feng]

Radio Free Asia was created after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

[Dina Temple Raston]

On the streets leading down to the main road to Tiananmen Square, furious people stared in disbelief at the glow in the sky listening to the sound of shots.

[BEI Feng]

The US watched the Chinese Communist Party gun down its own citizens and then also successfully cover up any knowledge about it afterwards. It wasn't until 1996 that we put out our first broadcast in Mandarin over shortwave into China.

[Dina Temple Raston]

This is Radio Free Asia. The following program is in Chinese. It was meant to shine a light into dark places, a light that civil society came to depend upon.

[BEI Feng]

The UN actually asked for or are reporting in their own research for war crimes tribunals.

[Dina Temple Raston]

This is BEI Feng. She's the president of Radio Free Asia. So tell me about your Burmese service. Wasn't there a cell phone from a junta soldier that was found or something like that?

[BEI Feng]

That's right. A villager picked up a cell phone that was actually dropped by a junta soldier within it, within the chocolate. And it had evidence of atrocities that he had committed. You know, basically selfies that he took with his, you know, fellow soldiers with people that they had massacred.

[Dina Temple Raston]

And in her telling, that phone changed everything because RFA reporters verified its contents, triangulated its location, and then broke the news.

[BEI Feng]

There had been a massacre in this particular village of Sagang.

[Dina Temple Raston]

It was Radio Free Asia that uncovered the mass detention of Uyghurs by Chinese authorities in Xinjiang. BEI says RFA got that story with old fashioned shoe leather reporting.

[BEI Feng]

One guy calls hundreds of police stations over the course of a night and, you know, he now has enough of a name that people actually, you know, will talk to him and tell him about what's happening. He just asked a Communist Party representative in Xinjiang, a local one, what he was being ordered to do. And he said it was, you know, 40% of the adult population that he was supposed to be rounding up and putting into these camps.

[Dina Temple Raston]

This was in 2017. RFA reporters heard from friends and family that people were vanishing.

[BEI Feng]

This is the fraught region of Xinjiang in northwest China. Authorities are promoting the area as a tourist hotspot. At the same time, they're sending local Uyghurs to internment camps.

[Dina Temple Raston]

And when RFA broadcast the details, Beijing officials responded and they started rounding up the reporters, relatives, too.

[BEI Feng]

It was clear when the relatives were detained that it was because of the reporting that their sons, their daughters, cousins, you know, what these reporters were doing at Radio Free Asia. But they said, you know, we need to be this voice for people who can't speak out. We need people to know about what's happening in our homeland.

[Dina Temple Raston]

And then other media outlets latched onto the news, and then New York Times and other places picked it up.

[BEI Feng]

Exactly. And it ended up with, you know, the first Trump administration declaring it to be a genocide against the Uyghur people. And the Biden administration followed that.

[Dina Temple Raston]

In fact, in 2020, President Trump signed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy act into law and even invited Uyghurs to the White House to talk about what was happening to their families. How long has your father been jailed? He has been in jail for five years, and we don't know how long.

[BEI Feng]

He will still be in there.

[Dina Temple Raston]

A short time later, the Biden administration imposed its own sanctions.

[BEI Feng]

You know, two different administrations. What we did really changed policy.

[Dina Temple Raston]

When we come back, the COVID cover up in Wuhan. How RFA reporters piece together the real death toll when no one else could, and how the work they've been doing may now be coming to an end. Stay with us.

[Unknown]

If you're looking for a daily guide to cybersecurity news and policy, sign up for the Cyber Daily from Recorded Future News. It serves up today's most interesting and important cyber stories from our sister publication, the Record, and then aggregates all of the big cyber stories you might have missed from news outlets around the world. Just go to the Record Media and click on Cyber Daily to get all you need to know about the world of cybersecurity right in your inbox.

[Dina Temple Raston]

For Recorded Future News, this is Click here. I'm Dina Templerest. You may not remember, but Covid began as a mystery illness. Growing concern about a new and rare pneumonia like virus that has caused at least two deaths and has spread from China to other countries in Asia.

[BEI Feng]

We suddenly noticed that there was a surge of, you know, pings people trying to reach us from inside Wuhan. And this was because they were getting no information from, you know, their own government about what was happening around them. And they, they knew that something was.

[Dina Temple Raston]

The Chinese government was trying to cover something up. Turns out it was COVID deaths.

[BEI Feng]

They reported, you know, a few thousand at the time. And our reporters called the crematories in the Wuhan area and got the numbers of, you know, the numbers of urns that they were putting out, talked to people on the ground and basically found that the number was 100 times that. And they put that out. And it was, you know, not until a couple weeks later that US Intelligence reports actually confirmed that and it was reported by cnn.

[Dina Temple Raston]

Bay says that Radio Free Asia has had that kind of impact, not just on policy and world events, but in fighting against China's dis and misinformation campaigns. So when the news came that the Trump administration was trying to pull the plug, they was surprised.

[BEI Feng]

It was on a Saturday. So I was just at home and, you know, got this email from Carrie Lake saying that our grants had been terminated because we no longer effectuate the priorities of the administration.

[Dina Temple Raston]

And so what was the first thing that went through your head?

[BEI Feng]

The first thing that went through my head was how is it that we don't effectuate the priorities of the administration anymore? And you know, when everything I've heard, especially in the national security space in the administration, is that we are very impactful and important. This grant, $60 million is our annual budget that we're given and it's peanuts compared with the billions of dollars that China puts in every year into its global media influence campaign.

[Dina Temple Raston]

After the news about ending RFA's funding was announced, the state owned Media in China sent off a flurry of posts.

[BEI Feng]

With social media posts celebrating this decision. You know, basically they are happy because one of the strongest voices that challenges their narrative is gone.

[Dina Temple Raston]

And then late last month, a temporary reprieve. A D.C. district judge has ordered the Trump administration to cease attempts to shut down government funded radio networks. The court said what press freedom advocates have been arguing for months, that canceling funds already appropriated by Congress, funds earmarked for Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, wasn't just unprecedented, it was probably unconstitutional. The Trump administration is expected to appeal, and it's unclear if the unfreezing of funds which the judge ordered will arrive in time.

[BEI Feng]

We have to have some resolution, otherwise we will have to go into bankruptcy proceedings.

[Dina Temple Raston]

Which begs another question. So if you furlough someone here, does that mean that they can get deported?

[BEI Feng]

So from the beginning, we made the decision to first and foremost try to protect our visa holders that are here. So there are about 35 of them. 14 come from countries where they would be immediately arrested if they went back. We are keeping them working and not furloughed because their work visas depend on them having these jobs.

[Dina Temple Raston]

As BEI sees it, if Radio Free Asia stops broadcasting, lots of important news will go uncovered. Not just a mystery virus in Wuhan or detentions in Xinjiang, but more immediate events like what's going on in the streets of Burma right now.

[BEI Feng]

These are all things that the authoritarian rulers of these countries would like to hide because they, you know, the Chinese Communist Party is most afraid of is its own people. And for their people to lose the knowledge of what their government is doing, what's happening around them, it's hugely beneficial to the Chinese Communist Party and to all of these authoritarian rulers around Asia.

[Dina Temple Raston]

And the situation for Radio Free Asia has gone from dire to devastating. On May 2, RFA told its staff that it was eliminating 280 positions in the United States. That's about 90% of its domestic workforce. And it's also cutting 20 more jobs overseas. Beifong called it an unconscionable situation. And it's unclear what will happen Next. But a May 6 announcement might be provide a clue. Senior presidential advisor Carrie Lake, the person who told RFA in an email back in March that their grants had been canceled, said Voice of America, another federally funded broadcaster, would be taking in a new news feed. She said One America News Network, a reliably pro Trump television channel, would be providing news feeds for Voice of America's foreign audiences at no taxpayer cost. It's unclear whether outlets like Radio Free Europe and RFA will be swept in that move, too. From Recorded Future News, this has been Click Here's Mic Drop. It was written and produced by Megan Dietrich, Sean Powers, Erica Gaeda, Zach Hirsch, Lucas Riley and me, Dina Temple. Rest. It was edited by Karen Duffy. We'll be back on Tuesday with an all new episode of Click Here. Have a great weekend.

[Unknown]

Looking for more of the cybersecurity and intelligence coverage you get on Click Here? Then check out our sister publication, the Record from Recorded Future News. You'll get breaking cyber news from reporters in New York, Washington, London and Kyiv, among others. And you'll see for yourself why it attracts hundreds of thousands of page views every month. Just go to the Record Media.