The Chinese Communist Party (CPC) seemingly rejoiced on Monday over the surprise announcement that the United States would shutter all of its state-funded international media operations, most notably Voice of America and Radio Free Asia which were both staunchly critical of the CPC and the Chinese government.

Chinese media reaction to the announcement that VOA’s parent entity, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), would be shuttered was muted for most of the weekend as editors awaited direction from the Party on how to respond. That guidance arrived early Monday morning on the editorial page of the influential CPC-run newspaper Global Times which denounced the state-backed U.S. media group as a “factory of lies” in both its Chinese and English editions.