Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that his government designated six more Chinese media outlets in his country as "foreign missions" that are allegedly pushing what he described as "communist propaganda." This is a self-defeating move in terms of what the U.S. proclaims to be its global cause of supporting free speech. Without protecting the foreign media companies operating within its own borders and ensuring that they don't feel any intimidation from the authorities there, the U.S. cannot credibly claim to support free speech anywhere in the world. 

All countries have the sovereign right to regulate whatever activities that they deem necessary in the interests of national security, but the U.S. move arguably doesn't advance those interests, nor does it align with its carefully cultivated soft power reputation of supposedly supporting free speech. Rather, it's nothing more than an attempt to further worsen relations with China and promoting a modern-day "red scare" fearmongering campaign. 

In addition, it's also very condescending to many Americans that their government does not have enough confidence in their media literacy to determine what's "propaganda" and what is not. 

Extrapolating on that point, the U.S. is the center of the global mainstream media industry. Americans have been exposed to all sorts of media techniques and narratives for decades, so much so that it's practically impossible to find one who doesn't have any extensive familiarity with it. 

They have more experience than anyone else when it comes to ascertaining the quality of the various information products that they're exposed to. Many even learn about this nowadays in school, and the topic of fake news has been so popular ever since the 2016 presidential campaign that everyone has an opinion about it. 

It's not the U.S. government's place to determine what is and isn't "propaganda." Although it's been done before during the Cold War, whenever such actions are committed, they violate the spirit of everything that America is supposed to represent. The so-called land of the free should allow its people the right to freely access information without any being told by their government that the authorities regard it as "propaganda." Americans already have enough experience to draw their own conclusions about whatever information product they come across. Nobody needs the U.S. government to offer its opinion one way or the other. 

America's actions erode its soft power standing abroad as well. Those across the world who sincerely believed that the U.S. supported the cause of free speech will likely be disappointed to hear that it doesn't believe in this principle at home. This makes one wonder whether the entire cause is really just a cover for meddling in other countries' domestic affairs, discrediting their authorities, and preconditioning the U.S. government's targeted audience abroad with believing whatever America and its media surrogates say instead of their own reputable sources at home. 

Speaking of domestic contexts, many Americans are already increasingly skeptical of their country's media outlets. Americans are divided over which ones constitute "fake news" and "propaganda," but almost all of them believe that one or more outlets certainly deserve these labels, even such a determination is entirely subjective. Another point to pay attention to is that a lot of Americans also don't believe their government's official narrative about foreign affairs. That actually explains the popularity within the US of foreign information outlets, including from China. The state's crusade against them might therefore only increase their appeal. 

The U.S. government should have more confidence in its people's media literacy. Behaving so condescendingly towards them is an insult to the intelligence of average Americans. It also undercuts the U.S.' soft power edge abroad when it comes to campaigning for the cause of free speech. The self-defeating action of designation more Chinese media outlets as "foreign missions" and "communist propaganda" is thus an ill-thought-out move in pursuit of narrow short-term goals which could end up having serious long-term repercussions for the country's global reputation. It might even increase American's cynicism of their own government too. 

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