China to expel US journalists in tit-for-tat move

Beijing declared on Wednesday that all US nationals with press credentials expiring this year who work with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post would have to hand back their press credentials within ten days and would no more be allowed to work in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Macau.

It was not immediately clear how many US reporters would be affected.

The government also said that the China branches of the three dailies, in addition to the US broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) and Time magazine, must “declare in written form information about their staff, finance, operation, and real estate in China.”

The announcement drew strong reaction from the executives of the affected US newspapers and the hawkish US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who claimed at a Washington press conference that Beijing’s decision would “further foreclose the world’s ability to conduct the free press operations” that were “really good for the Chinese people.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, however, said on Wednesday that China had been “compelled” to take the measures in response to “the unreasonable oppression the Chinese media organizations experience in the United States.”

The US had in early March imposed restrictions on Chinese journalists in the US. The Chinese Foreign Ministry had described those restrictions as “bullying” and pledged to respond in kind.

China to retaliate US restrictions on Chinese journalistsChina condemns as “bullying” the recent restrictions imposed by the United States on Chinese media in the country, pledging to take countermeasures.

The US claimed at the time that its decision had been in response to what it called Beijing’s “long-standing intimidation and harassment of journalists.”

That came shortly after China expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents in late February for publishing an opinion column that referred to China as the “real sick man of Asia.”

Beijing denounced the daily’s column as racist and, after the newspaper declined to apologize, revoked the visas of the three reporters in China.