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In a rapidly shifting global media landscape, China has this year intensified its push into state-sponsored international broadcasting—grabbing strategic terrain once dominated by US-funded networks.
From Indonesia’s remote islands to the villages of northern Nigeria, Chinese state media is now filling the airwaves left vacant by the March 2025 directive from the Trump administration to deactivate much of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), including Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA).
Trump’s directive, framed as a budget-saving and another “America First” initiative, eliminated decades of investment into media as soft power diplomacy. Almost immediately, shortwave frequencies previously used by the US for promoting free information in restrictive environments fell silent.
China, long adept at using radio as a geopolitical tool, quickly filled the void.
Beijing’s Expanding Radio Empire
Beijing's state-controlled broadcaster, China Radio International (CRI), has now accelerated its output across dozens of frequencies, especially in Asia and Africa. Where once VOA could be heard in Tagalog, Bengali, and Urdu, CRI’s programming now beams Beijing -framed global news in local languages like Hausa, Bahasa Indonesia, and Tamil. In many remote or authoritarian-governed areas, shortwave still remains a critical channel for external news, and those channels are changing quickly.
In parts of Indonesia where internet penetration is low, Chinese radio is gaining a foothold among communities traditionally more attuned to the BBC or VOA. The programming is subtle, typically mixing international news with soft-focus cultural segments, but the narratives reflect Beijing’s worldview, and critical of Western liberalism.
It’s a battle of ideas of course, with western media pushing a Eurocentric worldview via shortwave and global TV stations – Beijing is now merely playing the game as others do, but in a region where its greatest on-air opponent has packed up and left.
In Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, CRI’s footprint continues to grow along with Chinese investments in infrastructure projects.
A 2024 study by the University of Malaya’s Centre for Regional Media found that – maybe not surprisingly - in parts of rural Laos, over 70% of accessible international shortwave broadcasts in local languages now originate from Chinese transmitters. As such, it’s just one aspect of the immense influence China has in the country.
The End of American Radio Diplomacy?
The U.S. withdrawal from shortwave broadcasting marks a shift in how Washington engages global audiences. For over seven decades, VOA and its sister outlets offered news broadcasts to listeners under censorship in the Soviet Union, North Korea, Vietnam, and China itself.
Even in the internet age, shortwave has remained relevant—particularly where authoritarian governments can block or limit online content or internet access.
Trump’s March 2025 executive order cited a “strategic pivot away from Cold War-era broadcasting,” arguing for a more commercially viable and domestic-focused communications strategy..
The subsequent decommissioning of shortwave infrastructure happened very shortly afterwards. VOA’s Persian, Cantonese, and Burmese services were off air within weeks, effectively silencing the US-funded shortwave presence across Asia.
Such a soft power vacuum was never likely to last long, with China moving to fill the void with shortwave radio, training programmes for journalists, and subsidised content for local commercial stations.
Shortwave in the Digital Age: Still Relevant in Asia
Shortwave remains important across much of Asia. Internet connectivity remains inconsistent in countries like Myanmar, Afghanistan, and parts of Indonesia. Radio is one of the last uncensored media channels, despite its ability to be blocked or jammed by authorities.
In North Korea, clandestine shortwave radios smuggled across the border have long allowed citizens to access RFA’s Korean broadcasts. The loss of that channel will impact efforts by the South the engage with the North Korean public. Meanwhile China’s shortwave broadcasts are undiminished and still aligned with Pyongyang’s policies.
In China’s western Xinjiang province, where the government restricts internet access and tightly controls religious expression, Uighur-language VOA and RFA programming gave locals an Western-oriented perspective that has now been silenced.
China’s Radio Strategy:
CRI now partners with local stations in Africa and Southeast Asia, offering content at low or no cost – as is done by western networks. China also builds and upgrades transmission infrastructure in regions where Chinese economic investment is rising—such as Laos, and the Solomon Islands.
In many cases, governments welcome Chinese support, viewing it as non-intrusive and aligned with national development narratives. The transmissions focus on themes like sovereignty, infrastructure-led growth, and cultural exchange—avoiding overt political topics.
The decline of US shortwave broadcasting leaves listeners with fewer choices in contested information spaces.
While BBC World Service remains active, its reach is limited by funding.. Japan’s NHK World also maintains some shortwave output in both English and Japanese.
Shortwave broadcasting into Asia from the ABC’s Radio Australia was cut in 2017 amid a round of budget cuts.
Since then, no regular ABC shortwave transmissions have been directed at Asian audiences, although Radio Australia continues digital and satellite broadcasting, mostly targeting the Pacific Islands.
In this country, RNZ’s Radio Pacific (formerly RNZ International) also produces shortwave radio primarily aimed at the South Pacific.
While it’s not intended for Asia, listeners can often pick up the signal in East and Southeast Asia, and even as far away as China and Japan.
As America steps back from international shortwave radio, China is stepping up with a model that is professional, pragmatic, and uncritical of authoritarianism.
In a region where shortwave still penetrates borders and barriers, the shift is more than symbolic—it is strategic.
Asia Media Centre
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