Demand the New York Times Stop Inciting War!

To the New York Times Editorial Board:

We, the undersigned, condemn the New York Times’ accelerating role in manufacturing public consent for war with China.

Over the past month, the New York Times editorial board has published a series of pro-war editorials calling for a massive U.S. military buildup, openly preparing the public for confrontation with China. These pieces recycle the same tired, alarmist anti-China narratives that the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars promoting to prime the public for catastrophic violence.

Recent headlines make this trajectory unmistakably clear. In asserting that “America’s military has defended the free world for 80 years,” the Times once again repackages U.S. interventionism as a benevolent necessity, laundering decades of devastation under the language of moral duty. When the NYT claims that “rivals know this and are building to defeat us,” its abandons even the pretense of journalism in favor of outright fear-mongering. The calls for “additional spending” on top of an already obscene trillion-dollar military budget, and the insistence on “bringing private industry into the mission,” raise an obvious question: who benefits? The answer, as always, is weapons manufacturers, defense contractors, and billionaires. Never the public the NYT claims to serve.

Missing entirely from the New York Times are any serious investigative or critical pieces on the death of Chinese national Chaofeng Ge, who was found hog-tied and hanging in ICE detention. Missing is any meaningful analysis of the federal persecution of Chinese scholars at the University of Michigan and elsewhere that have destroyed careers, lives, and families. Missing are the voices of Chinese, Chinese American, and Asian American communities who are already living with the consequences of being cast as an “enemy within” as the United States escalates toward open confrontation.

These omissions reflect clear editorial choices that shield state violence from scrutiny while amplifying narratives that justify future bloodshed. The result is a media landscape in which the United States grows increasingly unsafe for anyone with Chinese heritage, even as the country’s most influential newspaper refuses to name or confront that reality.

The timing of this editorial barrage is no coincidence. As the Times churns out calls for militarization, the U.S. military is rapidly intensifying its posture across the Pacific. The Trump administration has announced billions more in arms sales to Taiwan. Japan has deployed new missile systems along the Ryukyu Islands, near China’s coast, following the U.S. deployment of long-range Typhon missile systems capable of striking major Chinese cities. This escalation unfolds under the ever-present shadow of nuclear confrontation.

At the same time, the U.S. government has passed the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, effectively criminalizing cooperation with China by labeling broad sectors of its economy as military-linked. In the midst of a worsening planetary climate emergency, this criminalization of international scientific and climate cooperation is as dangerous and short-sighted as the march toward nuclear war itself.

And yet, the New York Times continues to flood its opinion pages with arguments for higher war budgets, deeper militarization, and the normalization of the idea that war with China is both inevitable and imminent. 

The Times has a responsibility that it repeatedly fails to meet. Inciting war is a moral and political crime, especially when carried out by an institution with as much reach and influence.

We, the undersigned, demand the following: 

1. Launch a full, independent investigative series into the death of Chaofeng Ge, a Chinese national who was found hog-tied and hanging in ICE detention. This investigation must examine the conditions of his confinement, the conduct of ICE and private detention contractors, and the broader pattern of abuse and neglect faced by immigrants in U.S. custody.
   
   
2. Conduct sustained, critical reporting on the federal persecution of Chinese scholars and students, including those at the University of Michigan whose lives and careers have been devastated by national security prosecutions and surveillance.
   
   
3. Center Chinese, Chinese American, and Asian American voices in coverage related to U.S.–China relations, national security, immigration, and domestic repression. This includes publishing op-eds, first-person accounts, and investigative reporting that reflect the lived realities of those targeted as an “enemy within” amid escalating geopolitical tensions.
   
   
4. Immediately halt editorial advocacy for war with China, including fear-mongering narratives, calls for increased military spending, and uncritical repetition of Pentagon talking points. The New York Times must stop treating war as inevitable and begin subjecting U.S. militarism to rigorous scrutiny.
   
   
5. Provide transparent editorial accountability by publicly disclosing the sources, assumptions, and financial interests that shape its national security and defense-related editorials, including ties to defense contractors, corporate sponsors, and government institutions.

We demand journalism that serves the people. The New York Times must choose whether it will continue to manufacture consent for war or finally meet its responsibility to inform, investigate, and challenge power.

For Peace and Truth,