China Guts U.S. Press Corps in Beijing With Mass Expulsions
China revokes press credentials for reporters from three U.S. newspapers, escalating a wider battle with the Trump administration.
(Bloomberg) -- China took the unprecedented step of expelling more than a dozen U.S. journalists from three American newspapers, escalating a wider battle with the Trump administration as the coronavirus pandemic threatens to drag the global economy into a recession.
China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said U.S. reporters at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post must hand in their media cards within 10 days, calling the move a response to U.S. caps on Chinese media imposed early this month. It wasn’t immediately clear how many journalists would have their visas revoked.
The journalists are prohibited from relocating to work in Hong Kong and Macau, semi-autonomous regions that in theory enjoy greater press freedoms and control over immigration policy. China also asked five U.S. media outlets to submit detailed personnel and asset information to the government, a decision that mirrored a U.S. move to designate five Chinese media outlets as “foreign missions.” This requirement applies to Voice of America, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Time.
Relations between the U.S. and China have deteriorated in the past few months, even after the world’s biggest economies reached a phase-one deal to end a tit-for-tat trade war. The U.S. has lobbied nations to rebuff China’s cheap infrastructure loans and avoid using Huawei Technologies Co. equipment for 5G networks, while also highlighting human-rights abuses against minority Muslims and supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
The virus pandemic has further hurt ties, with the U.S. accusing Beijing of delaying visits to China by American health experts in the aftermath of the outbreak. In recent days they’ve blamed each other for the origin of Covid-19, with Trump calling it a “Chinese Virus” in a tweet on Tuesday. A Chinese foreign ministry official, meanwhile, has pushed a conspiracy theory the U.S. army may have had a role in spreading the pathogen.
The U.S. and China “are locked in a downward spiral and neither side appears willing to pull out of the nosedive,” said Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “So long as the domestic politics in both countries remains conducive to a hardening position, we should expect tensions to grow, and increasingly, to grow exponentially.”
‘Foreign Missions’
The spat over media access began in February, when the U.S. designated five Chinese media companies as “foreign missions.” Beijing then revoked the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal reporters, ostensibly to retaliate for an op-ed that called China the “real sick man of Asia.” The U.S. in turn ordered four Chinese state-owned news outlets to slash the number of staff they have working in the U.S.
China on Wednesday urged the U.S. to stop what it called the “unreasonable suppression” of Chinese media.
“Our position is clear. We urge the U.S. to change course and address its mistakes,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters in Beijing. “If it goes down the wrong path, China will be compelled to take further countermeasures. The U.S. once said that all options are on the table, I can state the same. For China, all options are on the table.”
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Tuesday said he hoped China would reconsider the move while dismissing Beijing’s argument that the move was reciprocal.
“These aren’t apples to apples in any respect,” Pompeo said. “I regret China’s decision today to further foreclose the world’s ability to conduct the free press operations which, frankly, would be really good for the Chinese people, really good for the Chinese people in these incredibly challenging global times where more information, more transparency are what will save lives.”
China said the expulsions would apply to journalists whose press credentials are due to expire before the end of 2020.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said in a statement that it “deplores” Beijing’s move and that it would affect at least 13 journalists. It could potentially be more depending on how broadly China implemented the decision, it said.
“Their imminent banishment from journalism in China diminishes us in number and in spirit, though not in our commitment to vigorously cover China,” the FCCC said. “There are no winners in the use of journalists as diplomatic pawns by the world’s two pre-eminent economic powers. Journalists illuminate the world we live in. China, through this action, is dimming itself.”
Some impacted journalists have reported on issues China’s government views as sensitive. That includes the New York Times’s Paul Mozur, who has written extensively on China’s development of high-tech surveillance measures.
Mozur and several journalists took to Twitter to announce they were expelled.
Human rights groups also condemned the move.
“The Chinese government’s unprecedented move chokes off a major element of the very limited space for reporting in China,” said Yaqiu Wang, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities already exercise near-total control over the domestic media, such that the foreign press has been vital in enhancing the world’s understanding of China.”
A spokeswoman for Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam did not immediately respond to an email and a call for comment Wednesday morning.
Claudia Mo, a Hong Kong opposition lawmaker and former journalist, called the latest expulsions and denial of ability to work in Hong Kong an attack on the financial hub’s press freedoms. “We should be worried,” she said. “Free flow of information is a top Hong Kong asset. They’re killing Hong Kong as collateral damage.”
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With assistance from Bloomberg