How China Turned a Tiny Vegas Radio Station Into a Lobbyist for Huawei

Article by Yuichiro Kakutani in "The Washington Free Beacon":

LVPR, the 'People's Voice of Las Vegas,' is a mouthpiece for the People's Republic of China

At first glance, Las Vegas Public Radio (LVPR) appears like just another local FM radio station with local community sponsors, vaguely right-wing talk show hosts, and a janky website. There's a disclaimer on the bottom of the page noting that, contrary to the name, the station is not an NPR affiliate. The disclaimer makes no mention of the fact that LVPR, the self-proclaimed "People's Voice of Las Vegas," is actually a mouthpiece for the People's Republic of China.

Federal disclosures show that the station lobbies for Huawei, the Chinese tech giant widely considered a national security threat to the United States. In that role, LVPR has pledged to schedule programming to push back against mounting concerns about the company. LVPR, which is partially funded by Nevada taxpayers, has also built ties with regime officials, meeting bureaucrats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China and securing an exclusive interview with its consul general. The radio station, which ostensibly serves the local Las Vegas community, has even hammered out a plan to open an office in China to promote ties between Las Vegas and the communist regime.

"We'll tell the American people that Huawei is being f—ed in America by politicians," LVPR founder and president Gregory LaPorta told the Washington Free Beacon. "They are no different from Qualcomm and Google … [Huawei] wants a place in the world like anyone else."

In the past decade, China has aggressively targeted the United States with propaganda and misinformation. Chinese agents have used social media and text message alerts to disseminate fake news about the coronavirus, causing widespread confusion. Leading American media outlets received millions from Chinese propaganda outlets to publish hundreds of advertisements designed to look like news stories, some of which promoted half-truths about China's pandemic response. But China's decision to cultivate ties with a local community radio station, located more than 6,200 miles away from Beijing, is an example of how far-reaching China's influence can be.

While LVPR claims to be "the people's voice of Las Vegas," the radio station and its founder harbored international ambitions dating back to its founding—unusual for a community-centric FM station. The station retained two Chinese nationals as international liaisons since the 2016 launch, one of whom has been promoted to director of programming. The other liaison, meanwhile, is a pathologist based in a Shenzhen hospital, who LaPorta said offers overseas "contacts" for the radio station. The station also hired DaHeng Law Offices, a law firm that traces its origins to the Chinese government. As for LaPorta, he highlighted his history of promoting "Las Vegas community business and tourism in China" in his 2013 application for a broadcasting license submitted to the Federal Communications Commission.

Despite LaPorta's grand ambition, the radio station has been dogged by financial difficulties. In the 2019 fiscal year, the station raised $81,000 in revenue but reported $240,000 in expenditures, according to state filings. LaPorta blamed the station's rocky finances on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a government-backed entity that offers grants to public broadcasters. LaPorta said the CPB's refusal to offer financial support for his station has forced him to seek revenues elsewhere, including China.

"We can't make heads or tails [because of the CPB]," LaPorta said. "This is why we're going out of the country. Our own f—ing country has let us down.… They don't want to support us? F— them."

As part of its corporate citizenship, LVPR says the company is committed to "respecting human rights and avoiding complicity in any human rights abuse." Despite this pledge, LaPorta said he started courting Huawei, the controversial tech giant that helped China build the surveillance state in Xinjiang, to "help pay the bills." On Dec. 31, 2018, the LVPR Twitter account wrote that the radio station was "bringing Huawei to America." LaPorta refused to discuss details about the New Year's Eve broadcast—which was not archived—saying that what the station publicly broadcasted to nearly 500,000 Nevadans that day was "privileged information."

LaPorta told the Free Beacon that he has done no work for Huawei since December 2018. Despite this claim, LaPorta and the station's two international liaisons formally registered as lobbyists for Huawei in June 2019, nearly six months after the New Year's Eve broadcast. The lobbying disclosure notes that LVPR will create programming to "address concerns … about Huawei products/services being developed or manufactured in the U.S. for U.S. consumption." LaPorta maintained that he registered as a lobbyist merely as a precautionary measure so that they can start right away when Huawei gives them more tasks.

Huawei has not offered compensation to LVPR for its programming, according to LaPorta, but the lobbying disclosures note that Huawei is helping LVPR set up a "specialized pilot project located in a select Chinese city to make the American public broadcasting system readily available in China." LaPorta has acknowledged that this pilot project was discussed during the New Year's Eve broadcast.

LVPR's Chinese expansion plan got official backing from the Chinese government in October 2019 when LaPorta visited Beijing to meet with Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials to discuss plans to establish an "independent public broadcasting facility." LVPR's press release said the overseas office will help promote interest in Las Vegas tourism in China, but LaPorta insisted that his overseas office will "give them the truth" about corruption in China.

"We're not going to be a fake news agency," he said.

LVPR lists several major wire services, such as the Associated Press, as "affiliates" on its website. One of the wire services listed, the federally funded international broadcaster Voice of America, told the Free Beacon that the radio station is not an affiliate. The Associated Press did not respond to a request for comment about its relationship with the station.

LVPR further cemented its ties with the Chinese government when LaPorta invited Chinese consul general Wang Donghua onto his radio show. During his interview, Wang was sharply critical of the Hong Kong protesters, calling them "radical right" elements who perpetuated "violent criminal acts." LaPorta did not challenge Wang's characterization during the interview and said that he agrees with Wang.

"They were causing damage," LaPorta said. "They were causing damages to businesses and throwing stuff in business windows. I think though that's criminal, isn't it?"

LaPorta said that the Chinese expansion plan is still in an exploratory phase. He dismissed concerns about China's routine suppression of the freedom of the press and expressed no qualms about working with the Chinese government, given what he saw as the corrupt nature of the American government.

"The United States has probably more sins than the Chinese," he said. "America, we're the most corrupt nation on earth, probably, at this point."

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/how-china-turned-a-tiny-vegas-radio-station-into-a-lobbyist-for-huawei/