In February 2020, weeks before Covid-19 paralyzed the world, the Radio Free Asia reporter Jane Tang received a panicked text from a source in Wuhan, China: “They are following me,” the message read. “I’m too scared to move.” Ms. Tang had been investigating China’s cover-up of a new disease that had spread through Wuhan when she learned that Li Zehua, a journalist who had quit his state media job to chase the story, was being trailed by the police. Shortly after Ms. Tang received the message, Mr. Li was arrested.

2020年2月，就在新冠疫情让世界陷入瘫痪的几周前，自由亚洲电台记者唐家婕收到了一位在中国武汉的线人发来的一条惊慌的短信：“他们在跟踪我，”短信写道。“我吓得不敢动。”当时，唐家婕正在调查中国对一种在武汉蔓延的新疾病的掩盖，她得知从央媒辞职追查此事的记者李泽华正被警方跟踪。唐家婕收到短信后不久，李泽华就被捕了。

In contacting RFA, Mr. Li turned to one of the last reliable channels for on-the-ground, uncensored news in China. Since it was established in 1996 by the U.S. government in response to China’s massacre of pro-democracy student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989, RFA has reported from regions in Asia hostile to independent journalism: China, North Korea and Myanmar, among others, filling an important gap where free press outlets cannot exist.

李泽华联系的自由亚洲电台是仅有的几个提供现场采访、未经审查的中国新闻的地方之一。1996年，针对1989年中国在天安门广场屠杀亲民主学生抗议者的事件，美国政府成立了自由亚洲电台，此后该机构一直在亚洲敌视独立新闻的地区进行报道，包括中国、朝鲜和缅甸等，在自由新闻机构无法生存之处填补了的一个重要空白。

RFA’s impact has been crucial in China, where the Chinese Communist Party maintains a stranglehold on all media. The party, which leads the world in imprisoning journalists, relentlessly monitors and surveils social media and punishes people for online comments that run afoul of Beijing’s official narrative. Its advanced censorship and surveillance technologies are constantly upgraded to block unsanctioned news from reaching ordinary Chinese people.

在中共控制所有媒体的中国，自由亚洲电台的影响至关重要。中国监禁了世界上最多的记者，对社交媒体进行无情的监控，并对违背北京官方叙事的网络评论进行惩罚。它不断升级先进的审查和监控技术，以阻止未经许可的新闻传播到普通中国人当中。

Despite the roadblocks and intimidation, a national survey by Ipsos found that at least 44.1 million users managed to break through China’s Great Firewall weekly to read and listen to RFA’s reports in Mandarin, Cantonese, Uyghur and Tibetan. They seek out RFA to learn the truth about subjects such as natural disasters, mass protests, internal party conflicts and Taiwan’s democracy. The connection goes both ways: Ordinary citizens have provided the invaluable news tips that have fueled RFA’s reporting for almost 30 years.

尽管存在种种障碍和恐吓，益普索的一项全国调查发现，每周至少有4410万用户设法翻墙，阅读和收听自由亚洲电台的普通话、粤语、维吾尔语和藏语报道。他们通过该电台了解自然灾害、群众抗议、党内冲突和台湾民主等方面的真实情况。这种联系也是双向的：普通民众为其提供了宝贵的新闻线索，为自由亚洲电台近30年的报道提供了动力。

Yet today, as part of President Trump’s administrative cuts, RFA stands on the brink of extinction. On March 15, RFA’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, notified us that the $60 million grant that financed our entire operation was canceled and we would no longer receive our congressionally appropriated funds. Since then, RFA has been forced to sever contracts with almost all of our 463 on-the-ground stringers and furlough more than three-quarters of our 391 full-time staff members. Our studios are empty, and news production is minimal. Entire services in some languages have gone dark. Layoffs are imminent.

然而今天，作为特朗普总统的行政裁撤行动的一部分，自由亚洲电台几近关门。3月15日，自由亚洲电台的上级美国国际媒体署通知我们，我们的全部运营经费6000万美元被取消，我们以后不会再收到国会拨款。从那时起，自由亚洲电台被迫与我们几乎全部的463名实地特约记者解除合同，并让391名全职员工中四分之三以上的人进入强制无薪假。我们的演播室变得空无一人，制作的新闻数量也少得可怜。某些语种的整个服务已关闭。裁员迫在眉睫。

While the United States divests from providing free, uncensored press in China, the Chinese government continues to ramp up its global disinformation operation. China pours billions of dollars annually into a global media influence campaign that includes a radio program in some 50 languages, and its China Global Television Network operates in more than 70 countries. Beyond its official transmissions and websites, Beijing gives away content to media outlets throughout Africa, the Pacific region and Southeast Asia, and reportedly pays non-Chinese influencers to gush about subjects like tourism in Xinjiang, home to the repressed Uyghur minority.

在美国放弃在中国提供自由、未经审查的新闻的同时，中国政府继续加强其全球虚假信息传播行动。中国每年投入数十亿美元开展全球媒体影响活动，其中包括用大约50种语言播出的广播节目，其中国环球电视网在70多个国家运营。除官方的电台、电视台和网站外，中国政府还向非洲、太平洋地区和东南亚的媒体机构提供内容，据报道，还付费给国外网红，让他们大谈特谈新疆旅游等话题，新疆是少数民族维吾尔族生活的地方。

Celebrating RFA’s imminent demise on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform, a former editor in chief of the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times wrote, “Such great news.” By letting RFA go totally dark at this crucial moment, the U.S. government would cede the information space to China, playing into the hands of President Xi Jinping.

中共喉舌《环球时报》的一位前主编在微博上庆祝自由亚洲电台即将关门，称之为“大快人心”。在这样一个关键时刻让自由亚洲电台完全消失，美国政府将把信息空间拱手让给中国，正中习近平主席下怀。

RFA’s survival is central to U.S. interests. The recently published Annual Threat Assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence leaves little doubt that the Trump administration considers China the central menace to U.S. security. The report warns of Chinese operations weaponizing fake online profiles and artificial-intelligence-generated news anchors to “suppress critical views and critics of China within the United States and worldwide, and sow doubts in U.S. leadership and strength.”

自由亚洲电台的生存关系到美国的核心利益。国家情报总监办公室最近发布的《年度威胁评估》明确表明，特朗普政府认为中国是美国安全的核心威胁。报告警告说，中国的行动利用虚假的网络个人资料和人工智能生成的新闻主播，“压制美国国内和世界对中国的批评观点和批评者，并散播对美国领导力和实力的怀疑。”

RFA’s on-the-ground journalism has brought the world’s attention to some of the Chinese Communist Party’s most inconvenient truths. When the Hong Kong government forced the independent news providers Apple Daily and Stand News to fold in 2021, RFA stood its ground as the last major independent Cantonese media outlet. We continued to operate in Hong Kong until threats to our journalists forced us to close our bureau last year.

自由亚洲电台的实地新闻报道让世界注意到了中共的一些最不希望为外界所知的真相。2021年，当香港政府迫使独立新闻机构《苹果日报》和《立场新闻》关门时，自由亚洲电台作为最后一家主要的独立粤语媒体坚守阵地。我们继续在香港运营，直到去年我们的记者受到威胁，迫使我们关闭了香港办公室。

When China opened a secret police station in New York in 2022, RFA’s investigative reporters exposed that it was but a small part of a growing network of party stations around the globe. And when the Chinese government started rounding up Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in 2017, RFA’s small team of Uyghur reporters in Washington exposed mass detentions in Xinjiang that eventually ensnared more than a million people. Our reporting was picked up by news outlets around the world and led the United States to declare that the Chinese Communist Party was committing genocide against its Uyghur citizens. In retaliation for RFA’s coverage, we estimate that Chinese authorities have jailed at least 50 of our Uyghur journalists’ family members.

当中国于2022年在纽约设立秘密警务站时，自由亚洲电台的调查记者揭露，它只是全球不断增长的中共警务站网络的一小部分。当中国政府于2017年开始围捕维吾尔人和其他穆斯林少数民族时，自由亚洲电台在华盛顿的维吾尔记者小组揭露了新疆的大规模拘押事件，最终导致逾100万人遭到关押。我们的报道被世界各地的新闻媒体转载，并导致美国宣布中共正在对维吾尔族公民进行种族灭绝。作为对自由亚洲电台的报复，我们估计中国当局至少监禁了50名维吾尔记者的家人。

The sacrifices that RFA reporters make knowing they’re the last line of defense for their countrymen are often unimaginable. They cut family ties to minimize the harassment of their loved ones. They have been jailed, tortured and exiled. Now these brave journalists, who have risked everything to speak truth to dictators abroad, may be silenced by the very nation whose belief in press freedom inspired them in the first place.

自由亚洲电台的记者知道自己是同胞的最后一道防线，他们做出了常人难以想象的牺牲。他们切断与家人的联系，以减少亲人受到的骚扰。他们曾入狱、遭受酷刑和流放。现在，这些冒着一切风险在国外向独裁者喊话的勇敢记者，可能会被当初激励他们相信新闻自由的国家所噤声。

The irony is as stark as it is cruel, and that is why we continue to fight for RFA’s survival, bringing our case to the courts. Last week the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the U.S. government to release our funds. The order has since been appealed, and we have yet to receive any additional funds. If RFA is silenced, the official narratives espoused by dictators and despots may go unchecked and unchallenged. The next time a brave source calls or texts, there will be no one left to pick up the phone.

这是一种彻底而残酷的反讽，也是为什么我们仍在为自由亚洲电台的生存而战，将案件诉诸法庭。上周，哥伦比亚特区联邦地区法院裁定美国政府必须解冻我们的资金。然而该裁决旋即遭遇上诉，我们至今仍未收到任何追加拨款。如果自由亚洲电台被噤声，独裁者和暴君所支持的官方叙事可能不再受到制约和挑战。下次再有勇敢的线人打来电话或发来短信，恐怕就无人应答了。