China's state broadcaster is back on British airwaves

It’s a hard tasking trying to sell China these days. What with the crackdown on Hong Kong, the subjugation of Uighur Muslims, sabre-rattling on Taiwan and the coronavirus cover-up, even the most adept propagandists would struggle to present Beijing’s rulers in a good light. And sadly for the Chinese Communist Party their current spin-doctors are far from adept, judging by the laughably poor wolf-warrior social media tactics deployed by embassies around the world.

Now though, one weapon has been returned to the regime’s armoury here in the UK. Back in February, China’s state TV station CGTN was taken off the air in Britain after Ofcom established that it was controlled by the country’s Communist Party. At the time it was already facing sanctions from the watchdog for its one-sided coverage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and for allegedly broadcasting prisoners’ forced confessions.