Radio Free Asia says it resumes broadcasts to China

Source: NBC News/Reuters

Feb. 17, 2026, 11:54 PM EST


WASHINGTON — Radio Free Asia has resumed broadcasts to people in China, its CEO said Tuesday, after Trump administration cuts last year largely forced the U.S.-funded outlet to cease operations.

RFA and its sister outlets, including Voice of America, for years had been financed with funding approved by the U.S. Congress and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, or USAGM.

Last year Kari Lake, a former news anchor appointed by President Donald Trump as acting CEO of USAGM, terminated their grants, alleging waste of taxpayer money and anti-Trump bias. Critics decried the move, which led to mass layoffs, as ceding ground to China and other U.S. adversaries.

“We are proud to have resumed broadcasting to audiences in China in Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur, providing some of the world’s only independent reporting on these regions in the local languages,” RFA’s president and CEO Bay Fang wrote in a post on LinkedIn. She said the ability to restart the broadcasts was “due to private contracting with transmission services.” She did not provide details, but added that rebuilding the network would require consistently receiving newly approved congressional funding.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/radio-free-asia-says-resumes-broadcasts-china-rcna259488