The Law and Society report gives many specific instances of how many Chinese corporates, whose links with the Chinese government and the CCP are well known, have made heavy investments in India’s music, video and media industries.
On 5 August, the tremors created by the New York Times’ sizzling report on China’s global web of propaganda shook New Delhi too. The report specifically mentioned the operations of an American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who was pushing Chinese funding into an Indian media portal, Newsclick, to generate pro-China and anti-India propaganda. This revelation gave a new dimension to a two-year-old controversy that had shaken Indian polity. In 2021, the Congress party and its fellow opposition groups had branded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government as “anti-democracy” and an “enemy” of free media when Indian security agencies rounded up the operators of Newsclick for running a pro-China and anti-India media campaign. Ironically, it is now the same NYT exposing the PRC-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) links of Newsclick, which has been supporting Rahul Gandhi and all those part of the “regime-change” agenda bloc being run by well-known western wokes.
In a country like India which faces serious challenges from China both on the defence front as well as on the social and political fronts, this report should have come as a serious warning call. But in the heat of the BJP-Congress spat on the matter, the main issue of China funding a section of the Indian media and other social influencers did not get the public attention it deserved. More so because of China’s already deep inroads in India’s public affairs, especially in fields that affect the management of public perceptions.
The NYT investigation is mainly focused on Singham, who works hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party and some of its front organizations. As the NYT says, “It is part of a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-left causes. What is less known, and is hidden amid a tangle of nonprofit groups and shell companies, is that Mr. Singham works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide. From a think tank in Massachusetts to an event space in Manhattan, from a political party in South Africa to news organizations in India and Brazil, The Times tracked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups linked to Mr. Singham that mix progressive advocacy with Chinese government talking points.”
Two years ago in 2021, “Law and Society”, an Indian group of concerned lawyers, journalists and educationists compiled a well-documented report titled “Mapping Chinese Footprint and Influence Operations in India”. The study spans across fields like the Indian entertainment industry, think tanks, civil society, academia, media, social media, technology, intelligence, trade and politics and presents an account of, along with statistics, the deep inroads the Chinese have made in these areas.
The report gives lengthy details of how China has enrolled the active help of some leading Indian cinema personalities not only to start joint India-China film productions but also to use them as levers within the film regulatory bodies to promote pro-China feelings among the Indian audience. This report gives example of film “Rockstar”, where the producers were forced to remove Tibetan flag and blur out the “Free-Tibet” banner which was visible in its famous song “Saada Haque, Aithe Rakh”. Similarly a series of sponsored reviews of the Hindi film “Haqeekat” on the 1962 India-China war criticized and condemned it for demonizing China. Presenting the case of Amir Khan’s film “Dangal” in China, the report talks about the “mechanisms deployed by the CCP Government to inflate the figures of earning and exaggerate the ‘success’ of the film” in China—a ploy to present China as a profit avenue to other Bollywood players.
The Law and Society report gives many specific instances of how many Chinese corporates, whose links with the Chinese government and the CCP are well known, have made heavy investments in India’s music, video and media industries. It talks of Xiaomi of China investing $25 million in a digital media platform, which is an aggregator, developer, distributor and publisher of Bollywood films and offers over 8,000 Hindi movies and has partnership contracts with over 700 content creators.
The report talks of the well-known two cases of China’s direct influence in Indian news media. One is of Indian journalist Rajeev Sharma who has been arrested on charges of spying for China. Other is of a leading Indian news agency, which provided a platform to the Chinese ambassador for propagating pro-China content during the height of the Galwan Valley attack by China in Ladakh. The report also gives details of Chinese investments of $25 million by ByteDance in a prominent Indian news media group, which distributes news in most of major Indian languages and has 330 million monthly active users. China’s Tencent invested $50 million in NewDog which is owned by a Hong Kong based company and has over 100 million users in India. The UC News is another news outlet of China’s UCWeb which is a business within Alibaba Mobile Business Group. This group was successful in establishing media links with many Indian groups before it was banned by Government of India.
The report also quoted a plethora of news reports and commentaries from some “progressive” and “brave” Indian media groups and entities who would hardly miss any opportunity to brand the Modi government as “anti-democracy”. Such reports willingly or unwittingly promote the cause of those international, including Chinese “regime change” lobbies.
But recent developments indicate that the problem is much deeper than what meets the eye. At the time of writing this article, two latest developments further underline the seriousness of the issue.
One is a 10 August news item referring to the ongoing Enforcement Department inquiry the Newsclick matter. The report quotes ED officials on the alleged direct links between Newsclick and one of the most senior leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist); of an alleged transfer of Rs 40 lakh from Newsclick to some family members of a prominent anti-Modi activist; the transfer of Rs 72 lakh by the same news portal to a prominent left oriented journalist and some other journalists; a payment of Rs 17.08 lakh as “salary” to another activist who is currently under house arrest for alleged links with the Maoists; and transfer of another over Rs 97 lakh to a Marxist leader whom, the news report has referred to as a member of the IT cell of the Communist Party of India. The other news item is even more interesting. It is about a joint statement by the two main press clubs of Delhi, a prominent trade union of Delhi journalists and the association of accredited journalists of India. The statement, offering support to the Newsclick management, has not only called recent developments a “targeted” and “unwarranted and condemnable” one but has also protested against labelling Newsclick’s work as “antinational or seditious”.
While the final outcome of the ongoing inquiry against the news portal will clear the dust around this controversial episode, the matter of China making deep inroads into the Indian system is becoming clearer than ever.
Vijay Kranti is a senior journalist and Chairman, Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement.