Radio Free Asia’s president and chief executive said resumption of broadcasts to China was down to ‘private contracting with transmission services’. Photograph: Rod Lamkey/AP
Turkistan Times, 18 February 2026
WASHINGTON — In a move seen as a critical victory for press freedom and human rights advocacy, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has officially resumed its broadcasting services to China, bringing an end to a period of silence that many feared would leave the Uyghur people and other marginalized groups in an information vacuum. The restoration of these services, particularly the Uyghur, Tibetan, and Mandarin languages, comes after a tumultuous year of deep budget cuts and administrative shifts in Washington.
Breaking the Silence in East Turkistan
The resumption is a direct result of a bipartisan U.S. spending bill that allocated $653 million to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). While this figure is lower than previous years, it represents a massive surge from the $153 million originally proposed by the Trump administration—a budget that critics argued was designed to effectively dismantle the agency.
For the Uyghur community, RFA has long served as one of the few credible windows into a region where independent journalism is systematically suppressed. Last year, the termination of grants led to mass layoffs and a near-total cessation of operations, a move that rights activists warned was ceding crucial ground to Beijing’s state-run narrative.
According to Bay Fang, RFA’s president and CEO, the outlet is "proud to have resumed broadcasting to audiences in China," noting that these services provide some of the world’s only independent reporting in local languages. Fang emphasized in a recent statement that the return to the airwaves is essential for providing transparent news to regions currently suffering under heavy censorship and human rights scrutiny.
Innovative Strategies for Overcoming Infrastructure Gaps
The "new" RFA operates under a modified strategic model. Because the direct satellite and government-managed relay infrastructures have not yet been fully restored, the broadcaster has turned to the private sector to bridge the gap.
As reported by RFA spokesperson Rohit Mahajan, the outlet has secured contracts with private broadcasting services to deliver short-wave and medium-wave transmissions. While the Mandarin service is currently restricted to online platforms, the Uyghur and Tibetan services are back on the airwaves, reaching listeners who may not have reliable or uncensored internet access. Mahajan clarified that while this private contracting allows for immediate impact, the long-term goal remains a return to a more robust, government-supported transmission network.
The reaction from Beijing has been predictably sharp. Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, dismissed the resumption as a tool for spreading "falsehoods" and "smearing China." However, rights advocates counter that the "falsehoods" Beijing refers to are often the documented reports of the systematic oppression of Uyghur Muslims—reporting that RFA is now, once again, positioned to provide.
As the situation in East Turkistan remains a focal point of international concern, the return of RFA signals a renewed commitment to ensuring that the voices of the oppressed are heard and that the actions of the powerful do not go unobserved.
