These are crazy times

From FACT CHECK: Trump Asked a Reporter If She Was Working For China… She Is. by Raheem Kassam.

It seems the kind of rude, brash, in-your-face New Yorker kind of question we expect from a President who never turns the other cheek. Almost unseemly. She's part of the media, part of the White House Correspondents Association. Of course she doesn't work for the Chinese government. We would never allow an agent of our primary global competitor to help drive the news media agenda.

Until you find out she does. Apparently we need more rude, brash, in-your-face New Yorker kind of questioning. We are accustomed to assuming competence, compassion, good intentions for those in our major institutions. And quite apparently we have been wrong for a long time. The FBI needs housecleaning, the CIA needs housecleaning, the mainstream media need corona virus levels of scrubbing, the US Commission of Civil Rights needs housecleaning, K-12 needs housecleaning, elite universities need housecleaning, the ABA needs housecleaning - it is a long list of institutions which provide critical services or play an important role in our national and civic life and which are not performing in a fashion that is beneficial to the nation.

From Kassam's article. Can hardly believe it.

President Trump asked a reporter at his April 6th press event if she was working for the government of China, following a hostile question. She replied that her company – Phoenix Media – is “privately” owned.

She’s lying.

The Hong Kong/Cayman Islands based Phoenix Media is actually owned in large part by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and by a former CCP propaganda officer.

As of 2018, Phoenix Satellite Holdings was owned by Liu Changle (37.1% of shares). Changle is a “former PLA propaganda official who is close to senior Chinese government leaders”.

Changle previously worked as a propaganda officer for China National Radio (then known as the Central People’s Broadcasting Station).

A further 20 percent of the company is owned by Extra Step Investments Limited, in turn owned by China Mobile Hong Kong, which itself is owned by the Chinese government-owned China Mobile.

Eight more percent of the company is owned by China Wise Investment Ltd, owned by the Bank of China.

This means at least 65 percent of the company is owned by the government of China.

For journalist Youyou Wang to claim she works for a private company is an outright lie.