by WorldTribune Staff, July 28, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
Dozens of U.S. legacy media journalists and editors, including those at The New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, and NPR, went on junkets in which they received luxury travel, fine dining, and access to top Chinese officials in exchange for “favorable or open-minded” reporting about the communist regime in Beijing, an investigation found.
The junkets were often organized by front groups with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“The records reveal a deliberate propaganda model: identify the Americans controlling China coverage, bring them through a carefully managed experience inside the country, provide privileged access to Beijing-approved interlocutors and send them back into their newsrooms with friendlier views of China,” investigative journalist Natalie Winters wrote in a July 28 substack report.
The American journalists, editors, and broadcasters were brought to China via a delegation program run by the Committee of 100, an organization repeatedly linked to figures and institutions inside the CCP’s United Front, the report said.
The United Front is China’s military-grade influence network described by U.S. officials as working to “co-opt and neutralize sources of opposition” to the CCP with various tactics including pay-for-play trips.
Other U.S. legacy media outlets targeted by the CCP included The New Yorker, The Atlantic, PBS, WNYC, Newsweek, Time, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, and USA Today, Winters noted.
Records obtained by Winters show the program sought to “enhance understanding and improve perceptions of China in the U.S.”
“Participants were expected to share their experiences with colleagues after returning home and reshape what the organization portrayed as unfairly negative coverage of Beijing,” Winters noted.
A senior Financial Times editor said he would never again “think or write about China” without reflecting on the trip.
WNYC host Brian Lehrer confirmed that his perception of China changed “in 100 ways.”
A deputy business editor at The New York Times returned with new story ideas and plans to “shape my staff across Asia in some different ways.”
Winters listed the U.S. legacy media participants in the pay-for-play junkets:
The titles below reflect the participants’ positions at the time of the trips.
2007
David Brooks, columnist, The New York Times
Juan Williams, senior political analyst, NPR
Charles Cook, publisher, The Cook Political Report
2009
Jill Abramson, managing editor, The New York Times
John Byrne, executive editor, BusinessWeek
Clarence Page, columnist and editorial-board member, Chicago Tribune
2010
Rana Foroohar, deputy editor, Newsweek
John Gapper, associate editor and columnist, Financial Times
David Ignatius, associate editor and columnist, The Washington Post
Tavis Smiley, host, PBS and Public Radio International
Dean Baquet, former Washington bureau chief of The New York Times (listed on schedule but omitted from the final public roster)
2011
Eugene Robinson, columnist and associate editor, The Washington Post
Nicholas Goldberg, editorial-pages editor, Los Angeles Times
Rekha Basu, columnist, The Des Moines Register
2012
Clive Crook, senior editor, The Atlantic
Brian Lehrer, host, WNYC
Winnie O’Kelley, deputy business editor, The New York Times
Gary Silverman, U.S. news editor and deputy managing editor, Financial Times
Jonathan Tepperman, managing editor, Foreign Affairs
2013
Henry Finder, editorial director, The New Yorker
John Harris, editor-in-chief, Politico
Fred Hiatt, editorial-page editor and columnist, The Washington Post
Adam Kushner, executive editor, National Journal
2014
Howard Fineman, editorial director, The Huffington Post
Brian Gallagher, editorial-page editor, USA Today
Mark Halperin, editor at large, Time
Ruth Marcus, columnist, The Washington Post
