MS NOW's China Critic Once Took a Free Trip Funded by a Chinese Communist Party-Linked Group

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David Rohde, now senior national security reporter for MS NOW, recently called China's influence efforts a "Trump fantasy." What he left out: fifteen years ago, he traveled to China as a guest of a foundation with direct ties to Beijing's leadership – and never disclosed it to his audience.

Investigative journalist Natalie Winters, co-host of the War Room podcast, surfaced the trip as part of a broader review of American journalists who accepted Chinese-funded travel. Rohde's name appeared on an archived 2011 column, written while he was still at Reuters, announcing the trip. That version of the column later vanished from the internet under his byline.

A 2011 Trip, Never Fully Disclosed

In the column, titled "Will 'Made in America' sell in China?", Rohde wrote that he and other journalists were visiting the country on a trip "organized by the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a non-profit group run by businessmen with close ties to the Chinese government." That sentence was as far as the disclosure went.

The China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) is a Hong Kong-based nonprofit founded by Tung Chee-hwa, a billionaire and former Chief Executive of Hong Kong. Tung also served for nearly two decades as vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – a top political advisory body that a 2018 U.S. government commission described as a coordinating hub tied to China's highest levels of Communist Party decision-making.

Rohde has since written favorably about China on multiple occasions, including a column published shortly after Trump's recent speech, in which he suggested the president was trying to "undermine trust" in elections by raising the issue of Chinese interference at all.

Why the Disclosure Matters

Professional journalism standards treat funded trips like this one as a serious ethical problem. The Society of Professional Journalists' code of ethics tells reporters to refuse free travel and other favors that could compromise their independence or damage their credibility — precisely the kind of arrangement Rohde accepted without full disclosure.

CUSEF itself is required to register in the U.S. under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law meant to expose exactly this kind of foreign influence effort. According to FARA filings reviewed by multiple outlets, the foundation's American public relations firm described its media strategy in blunt terms: organize "familiarization trips" to recruit top journalists to travel to China, selected for effectiveness and opportunities for favorable coverage.

Those filings show the program was not a one-off. Between 2009 and the present, journalists and executives from dozens of American outlets — roughly 120 to 130 in total, according to historical tallies — accepted CUSEF-organized trips or attended CUSEF-linked events, spanning outlets across the political spectrum.

Part of a Bigger Pattern

CUSEF's activity fits into what analysts describe as China's "United Front" strategy: a decades-old approach, refined during the Soviet era and adopted by Beijing, aimed at building influence with foreign elites, universities, and media rather than relying purely on state propaganda. Multiple journalists and academics describe CUSEF as a central piece of this Chinese Communist Party influence strategy in the United States.

The foundation's reach has occasionally triggered pushback in the U.S. In 2018, the University of Texas at Austin turned down a CUSEF donation after a U.S. senator raised concerns about the foundation's ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and in 2023 members of Congress pressed the University of Montana to cut similar ties.

It's worth being precise about what is and isn't proven here. President Trump, in a recent speech, alleged that Beijing tried to directly pay American journalists to write negative stories about him around the 2020 election, citing a declassified CIA note. Independent fact-checks have so far found no public evidence — no named journalists, no financial records — confirming that specific payment scheme. The CUSEF-funded trips, by contrast, are a separate and well-documented matter: they are on the record in federal FARA filings, not classified intelligence, and Rohde's own 2011 column confirms he took one.

Outlook

Rohde has declined to say whether he took other CUSEF-sponsored trips beyond the one he disclosed in 2011. MS NOW has not commented publicly on the matter.

The broader story is bigger than one reporter. With CUSEF's trip program still active and FARA disclosures continuing to surface new names, pressure is likely to grow on American newsrooms to explain — and disclose — their reporters' past dealings with Beijing-linked organizations.

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Sources

1. Just the News – "MS NOW reporter who slammed Trump's China speech took 2011 trip funded by CCP-linked foundation": https://justthenews.com/world/asia/ms-now-reporter-who-knocked-trumps-china-speech-took-2011-trip-organized-ccp-linked
2. Wikipedia – "China–United States Exchange Foundation": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93United_States_Exchange_Foundation
3. IBTimes UK – "American Media On China's Payroll? Disclosures Name Prominent US Journalists in CCP-Funded Exchange Trips": https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-journalists-chinese-influence-trips-1810907
4. LegalClarity – "What Is the China United States Exchange Foundation?": https://legalclarity.org/what-is-the-china-united-states-exchange-foundation/

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