Roger Waters, an anti-Israel activist and cofounder of the rock band Pink Floyd, on Monday appeared on a Chinese propaganda network.
The now-78-year-old anti-Israel activist, who in 2020 discussed Israel's alleged role in George Floyd's death with the pro-Hamas Shehab News Agency and in 2017 tried to cancel a different band's Israel concert, is now touting pro-China views.
China Global Television Network (CGTN) America, based in Washington, D.C., is an arm of the Beijing-led propaganda network China Central Television. In an interview with CGTN America about China's sovereignty over Taiwan, Waters attacked American media.
"You won't catch me watching MSNBC or Fox or anything in between because it's all nonsense. It's all propaganda, all of it … and they're doing it as an exercise in control," Waters said.
Waters compared American media's coverage of U.S.-Taiwan relations to Nazi Germany and to George Orwell's 1984.
"It's the same kind of technique that, dare I say it," Waters said, "the Third Reich used in the '30s in Germany: You have to identify somebody. They identified the Jews. … Once you identify your enemy it's much easier to control the people because you close down the window of attention that they have."
Waters reprimanded the United States for its relationship with Taiwan and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) for visiting Taiwan earlier this month.
"It's for the Chinese people to make those decisions … it's none of our business … and it's certainly none of Nancy Pelosi's business," Waters said. He described Pelosi's actions as "retrograde," "unhelpful," and evidence that "she has no idea what diplomacy is."
Controversial politics are central to Waters's 2022 tour This is Not a Drill, where he references police brutality and abortion and calls President Joe Biden a "war criminal."