Cardin, Sullivan Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Counter Censorship in China and Promote Free Expression for Chinese Citizens

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) introduced the Informing a Nation with Free, Open, and Reliable Media (INFORM) Act to improve access to independent information and advance freedom of expression for citizens in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). 

This legislation strengthens efforts at the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for Global Media to develop technology to bypass PRC internet censorship, provide secure content-sharing tools for citizens, and support Mandarin language content and journalism. It also empowers citizen journalism and independent media outlets to produce and report on news throughout China.

“As the United States continues to focus on economic, military, and technological competition with Beijing, we must not forget the people of China and their fight for access to information,” said Chair Cardin. “Despite extensive censorship, Chinese citizens are increasingly questioning their government’s policies and conduct, seeking independent sources of information, and calling for greater political and economic freedoms. We have an unprecedented opportunity to engage with the Chinese citizenry to deepen understanding and build connections between our two peoples, and our bipartisan legislation will provide the resources to do just that.”

“One of Xi Jinping’s greatest weaknesses is that he is afraid of his own people,” said Senator Sullivan. “That’s why the CCP’s vast censorship apparatus—its ‘great firewall’—works to silence free expression and deny their citizens truthful information about the corruption of CCP leaders. We can do a much better job getting around China’s firewall and allowing the Chinese people to access information about their own government and connect with others across the globe who also yearn for freedom. This legislation lays out a way to exploit the CCP and Xi’s greatest weakness and make the most of our greatest strategic advantage—our commitment to liberty. I will continue to work in the next Congress and with the Trump administration to make it a reality.”

Key provisions of the INFORM Act include:

• Requiring the State Department and interagency to develop a comprehensive strategy for expanding information and engagement with Chinese citizens in the information space
  
  
• Improving the level of coordination among federal agencies to develop and disseminate timely and compelling Mandarin Chinese-language content that is otherwise blocked by the PRC government’s highly censored and restrictive internet ecosystem
  
  
• Increasing funding for media freedom programming, investigative journalism, and Mandarin Chinese-language content development initiatives, including by establishing and expanding a network of independent journalists or media companies that investigate and produce articles, reports, and other content related to real-time social, political, and economic events in the PRC
  
  
• Providing resources to the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for Global Media to further develop and innovate circumvention and secure content sharing tools for Chinese citizens to bypass the PRC’s stringent censorship regime and ensure that those tools are more effectively paired with access to independent and reliable information
  
  
• Strengthening diplomatic efforts to counter the lack of reciprocity with the PRC in the online information and public diplomacy space

Full text of the legislation can be found here.

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