The mainstream press has been breathless in its coverage of City Comptroller

September 29, 2025 admin 0 Comments

The mainstream press has been breathless in its coverage of City Comptroller and mayoral hopeful John Liu’s campaign finance troubles, including the arrest of his treasurer Jenny Hou last month and of the fundraiser Oliver Pan in November.

In New York City’s Chinese media, however, a sharp divide has emerged on how to view the situation. While most of the Chinese language newspapers portray Liu as the victim of discrimination, at least one publication has decried that view as flawed, accusing the other papers of being pawns of the Chinese Communist Party and implying that Liu has close ties with the Chinese government.

“The Chinese regime has shown support for Liu and his political campaigns in the United States,” asserted an article in The Epoch Times, a newspaper that is known for its critical stance on the Chinese Communist Party. “Liu traveled to China in 2007 to receive an award as one of the ‘Most Influential Overseas Chinese’ by 10 CCP-controlled media companies. The CCP-controlled media in China has given Liu much favorable attention.”

If the Chinese-American media has presented a more favorable perspective on Liu, that seems to reflect the view of many in New York’s Chinese community. The World Journal reported on widespread suspicions of nefarious motives behind the F.B.I. investigation:

Some members of the Fujianese community have speculated that the political reasons behind the investigation of Liu’s fundraising events are to prevent a minority, such as Liu, from becoming the city’s mayor and to stop him from regulating Wall Street. They say that Liu’s opponents do not want him to control the city’s finance industry and resources and are trying to ruin him by focusing on Xian Wu [Oliver] Pan and Jia [Jenny] Hou.

The Epoch Times argues that this is also the view of the Chinese government:

These outlets are either controlled or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a report in the journal China Brief. The CCP has also shown great support for Liu in its state-run media overseas.

When Liu’s 2013 mayoral campaign fundraiser, Xinwu “Oliver” Pan, was charged with fraud last November, some Chinese-language media outlets cried discrimination.

For example, the World Journal printed a political analysis article on Nov. 17 with the headline “FBI Trapping Pan Xinwu to Get at John Liu? Laying a trap for Pan Xinwu, political analysis: fear of Asian becoming mayor, coercing Pan to testify against Liu.”

Coverage of Hou’s arrest by the city’s Chinese media, the Epoch Times suggested, has ignored blatant evidence.

The complaint against Hou includes excerpts from instant message conversations in which she allegedly instructs campaign volunteers to imitate the handwriting of campaign donors and offers to return funds to a straw donor, among other illegal activities. Chinese-American media outlets did not cry discrimination this time, but they did defend Hou and Liu.

A World Journal article states, “Everybody thinks Hou Jia [Jenny Hou] is the White Rabbit who accidentally stumbled into the dangerous forest of politics.”

Stella Chan, a reporter at Sing Tao Daily, also noted the difference in coverage between the mainstream English-language press and the Chinese press in an article for Feet in 2 Worlds.

“When the F.B.I. investigation unleashed a flood of news about City Comptroller John Liu, I saw that the stories in New York’s English-language and Asian-language media were as different as day and night,” she writes. “In contrast to the mainstream English-language press which uses the word ‘scandal’ to refer to Liu’s situation, Chinese newspapers were terming it a ‘fundraising issue,’ while the Korean press used the word ‘allegation.’”

Chan’s article, however, points to bias in the mainstream media, not the Asian press.

“An Asian reporter, off the record, told me that some English press were running negative stories in order to damage Liu’s reputation,” she writes.

And she argues that the Asian media is simply striving for balance. “Innocent until proven guilty,” Chan quotes Danny Shin, a senior reporter for The Korea Daily, declaring.