US President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the United States’ international broadcasting agency pledged on Thursday to sharpen its media challenge to China, including by expanding into short-form videos, podcasts and diaspora group chats.
Sarah B. Rogers told a Senate committee hearing that Asia would remain a top regional priority for the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees Voice of America (VOA) and funds Radio Free Asia and other international broadcasters.
“China is rapacious and it is expanding all of its propaganda efforts,” Rogers said. “Chinese adversarial propaganda is a problem, and combating it has been a cornerstone of my public diplomacy strategy.”
But Rogers would inherit an agency weakened by the Trump administration’s own efforts to dismantle much of its operations last year. Around 1,000 VOA employees were placed on paid administrative leave, while VOA and Radio Free Asia continue to publish Chinese-language coverage at reduced levels.
At the hearing, Rogers claimed that Chinese propaganda increasingly promotes leftist anti-colonial narratives and antisemitism through automated or semi-automated social media accounts that coordinate to spread disinformation.
USAGM would expand beyond traditional news formats into newer platforms including short-form video, diaspora group chats, podcasts and other timely forms of engagement, Rogers said. And Asia would remain the agency’s top priority, alongside Cuba and the Middle East, while USAGM also hopes to expand its presence in Africa to counter China’s growing influence.
