The New York Times Publishes Chinese Communist Party Propagandist without Disclosure

A Sunday guest essay in the New York Times from a Dr. Wang Huiyao submits that the People’s Republic of China can play a key role in brokering a peace agreement in the ongoing war Russia is waging against Ukraine. Wang is a Chinese Communist Party propagandist, but the Times failed to disclose his affiliation despite its obvious relevance to his making an argument that would increase Beijing’s prestige on the world stage.

“Securing a multilateral resolution to the crisis in Ukraine will be a tough and risky challenge, but there is no country better placed to do so than China,” writes Wang, who admits to the increasingly close relationship between his country and Vladimir Putin’s, but also asserts that “China deeply values the principle of state sovereignty and has long opposed outside interference in what it considers internal affairs such as Taiwan.”

The kind of conflation he makes between Taiwan and Ukraine is a telling one. In it, he casts Western countries and their support for Taiwan’s functional independence in the Russian/aggressor role and China in the Ukrainian/defensive role when, in reality, any armed conflict involving Taiwan would begin with a Chinese attack.