The CBS Evening News had to cut its East Coast broadcast short after a cameraman suffered a health mishap, towards the end where anchor Tony Dokoupil runs either a “Good Stuff” feel-good segment or an editorial. West Coast viewers got to see the editorial, and it absolutely cooked.
Watch the editorial commentary in its entirety, as aired on the CBS Evening News on Wednesday, May 13th, 2026:
WATCH: CBS's Tony Dokoupil completes his editorial to close out the West Coast Evening News broadcast. In a minute and a half, he runs through what the other nightlies omit- that China is going through the suck worse than the U.S. right now. The media hall monitors will surely… pic.twitter.com/ppqGITo1mn
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 14, 2026
TONY DOKOUPIL: Finally, tonight from Taiwan: as President Trump and China's Xi Jinping prepare to meet, you will hear a lot about American decline and the rise of a powerful new China. The Chinese certainly believe it. But is it true? Xi’s China is a marvel by many measures, is- is the world's second largest economy, producing almost 30% of the world's manufactured goods. They have high speed rails that put the Acela to shame. And China has lifted millions of its citizens out of poverty, making things like the iPhones in your pocket and mine.
And yet, America remains the innovation hub of the world. Made in China, yes; but designed and invented in the U.S.A. New drugs, new discoveries, new inventions, new space missions. Xi boasts of the country's industrial might, and it's impossible to deny that fact. China's population is in decline, though, well below replacement rates. Unemployment is high with millions in rural provinces living in poverty, and massive housing complexes that now sit empty. Most importantly, and perhaps I'm stating the obvious here, none of these problems are a topic on the Chinese evening news. In fact, pessimism itself is forbidden on the Chinese internet. The freedoms we have, they simply do not. That's another day in America and the world. I'm Tony Dokoupil, live from Taipei, Taiwan. Good night.
Dokoupil’s commentary is significantly different from what we’re getting from the rest of the Trump-deranged media seeking to depict the United States as a supplicant before China, bowing and scraping before Xi for help on any number of issues. There is an entire reality with regard to China that American news viewers don’t get to see, and Dokoupil very cleanly laid it all out in about a minute and a half.
Rather than sitting on the catbird seat, China is going through simultaneous crises that have gone wholly unreported in the United States. Those run in addition to reports that Xi is purging the Chinese military. Xi is under great pressure to save face as well. But you just don’t hear that on the other networks.
Dokoupil closes his commentary by pointing out the freedoms of speech and of the press that we in the United States enjoy, compared to China’s institutionalized control. Dokoupil knocked it out of the park here, plain and simple. The media hall monitors can cry harder into their soy lattes.
