IN 2019, AT a conference in China of Chinese-language media firms from around the world, a senior official deviated from his script to make his point clear. It was, he said, the “duty and mission” of such firms to help “retransmit” news from China’s state-controlled press at “important times”. But the more than 400 delegates from over 60 countries, including America, Australia, Britain and Canada, would have needed no reminding. Their presence itself was a sign that China had already succeeded in bringing much of the world’s Chinese-language media under its thumb. Widespread use of WeChat, a censored Chinese social-media platform, …
