Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Voice of America (VOA) Director Amanda Bennett and Deputy Director Sandy Sugawara both announced their resignations on Monday. The reason is believed to be that the White House accused VOA of propaganda for China. It is so ironic that VOA can even be accused of being Beijing's mouthpiece in Washington.

In China, those who work on international news know best what the stance of the VOA is. The VOA has lost much of its influence in Chinese society in recent years because of its overemphasis on ideology over facts, a common tendency of the US media outlets. In the past, Chinese people thought US media outlets such as VOA were "objective". In these years of frictions between China and the US, their performance has reshaped our understanding of them again and again, and the influence of the US media in the field of Chinese public opinion has collapsed all together.

Now even the VOA is considered by Washington to be pro-China, so much so that the director and deputy director could not continue to work. We can imagine that there is a very powerful force in the US that is pushing the limits of political correctness to extremes.

The intensifying conflict between China and the US will squeeze the media outlets on both sides. On the Chinese side, people like me have sometimes been criticized online for flip-flopping. However, I have always held my views for more than a decade.

In my opinion, in the long-term game between China and the US, the one who is more calm, rational and open-minded is more likely to gain greater strategic resilience and thus have more endurance, and eventually win.

VOA's director and deputy director resigned due to reports that were "deemed wrong" by the White House. Well, VOA's reports have long been unbearable. Let's see what absurd story they have in store for China next.

The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn