Say what you like about President Trump, the man knows how to make a phrase stick. From "Crooked Hillary" to "Low-Energy Jeb" and "Lyin' Ted Cruz," Trump's talent as a wordsmith is well-established. His latest and greatest dismissal is "fake news," and now even China is using it to wave off human rights advocates, The New York Times reports.
Foreign news organizations have run stories in recent weeks about the torture of Chinese lawyer Xie Yang, based on transcripts and interviews with Xie's lawyers. The newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party has now taken to calling those reports "fake news":
Another state-run paper, Xinhua, wrote that the "stories" about Xie "were essentially fake news."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Trump's attacks on the media will offer a good excuse for Chinese officials to step up their criticism of Western democracy and press freedom," journalism professor Qiao Mu told The New York Times. "China can turn to Trump's attacks to say Western democracy is hypocrisy."
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Crossword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in ZürichThe Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
