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83 region’s Chinese-language radio stations are particularly loyal to Beijing, representing either independent Chinese voices or those supporting the banned religious sect, Falun Gong. According to sources close to the deal, Phoenix structured the offer to avoid a US law that limits foreign ownership of US radio stations to 25 percent. In filings with the Federal Communications Commission, Phoenix was listed as owning 20 percent of the US-based investor, RBC, while the remaining 80 percent was owned by an editor at Phoenix who is also a US citizen.” Under such a setup, no FCC regulations would have been broken. To be extra sure that the deal would go through, however, advisors to Phoenix convinced the Hong Kong company to seek approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a Treasury Department bureau that monitors foreign investments in the United States on national security grounds. In a ruling that surprised the potential investors, CFIUS declined to approve the deal, referring it to then-president Obama. Sources close to the deal noted that the fact that a Phoenix employee in the United States had pleaded guilty to espionage-related charges did not help Phoenix’s case.'* RBC pulled out of the deal on September 25, 2013. But the efforts to break into the L.A. radio market did not end there. In the summer of 2018, a New York firm, H&H Capital Partners, announced that it was buying a Mexican radio station, XEWW, that broadcasts throughout Southern California." Sources involved in that deal said that H&H sought to buy a Mexican station in order to avoid scrutiny in the United States. H&H is a New York-based firm led by several individuals who spent years working as reporters for Global Times, a state-run newspaper in China. Filings from H&H to the FCC about the deal suggest that Phoenix Satellite TV remains a player in the purchase as the address that H&H gave for its Los Angeles—based holding company was the same as Phoenix’s offices in L.A."* H&H’s attempt to buy XEWW to broadcast into the United States has been challenged at the FCC by a Chinese-language radio station linked to Falun Gong.'° China’s main English-language newspaper, China Daily, has also expanded operations into America, starting a North American edition in 2009. In addition, through its marketing arm, China Watch, the paper began distributing English-language content directly as advertising inserts in the Wall Street Journal, the Des Moines Register, and the Washington Post, among other leading US newspapers. Often, it’s hard to tell that China Watch’s material is an ad, as was the case highlighted by President Donald Trump with an advertising insert in the Sunday Des Moines Register—an insert that the president suggested was aimed at undermining political support both for the president and the Republican party.’” Rough estimates from newspaper executives indicate that China Section 6 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020542