Source: WSJ (3/181/20)
China Banishes U.S. Journalists from Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post
Beijing takes further measures against Voice of America and Time; Secretary of State Pompeo criticizes action
The Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing. PHOTO: ARTYOM IVANOV/TASS/ZUMA PRESS
BEIJING—China said it would revoke the press credentials of Americans working for three major U.S. newspapers in the largest expulsion of foreign journalists in the post-Mao era, amid an escalating battle with the Trump administration over media operating in the two countries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday it was demanding all U.S. nationals working for The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post whose credentials expire by the end of the year turn those credentials in within 10 days.
The measure would affect most of the U.S. journalists working at those newspapers in China, which issues press credentials for up to 12 months and has recently limited them to six and, in some cases, as little as one month.
The affected reporters won’t be allowed to report anywhere in China, including the semiautonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macau, the statement said.
It also ordered the three newspapers and two other media outlets—Voice of America and Time magazine—to submit information about staff, finances, operations and real estate in China.
The move heightens tensions between the U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest economies, which have been engaged in a trade war over the past two years. The fight recently spilled into the media sphere as the two countries forced the departure of journalists or staff from each others’ media outlets.
The U.S. National Security Council, in a pair of tweets on Tuesday, criticized China’s latest action. “The Chinese Communist Party’s decision to expel journalists from China and Hong Kong is yet another step toward depriving the Chinese people and the world of access to true information about China,” the NSC wrote. In another tweet, the White House called on China to instead focus on helping the world combat coronavirus, which the NSC pointedly described as the “Wuhan coronavirus.”
The actions are “reciprocal countermeasures that China is compelled to take in response to the unreasonable oppression the Chinese media organizations experience in the U.S.,” China’s Foreign Ministry said.
On March 2, the Trump administration announced a personnel cap on four state-run Chinese media outlets—Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International, China Global Television Network and China Daily—forcing them to reduce their Chinese employees in the U.S. to 100 in total, from 160.
That move came shortly after China expelled three Journal reporters over a headline on an Opinion column.
Before that the White House had reclassified state-run Chinese media news organizations as “foreign missions,” requiring them to declare their personnel and property to the State Department.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo disputed the Chinese government’s contention that its action came in response to the Trump administration’s measures.
“This isn’t apples to apples,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. “You all know the press freedoms you have…We know that that kind of freedom doesn’t exist inside of China.”
He said the individuals affected by the U.S. policy decision are employed not by independent media organizations, but by “Chinese propaganda outlets.” He said he hoped Beijing would reconsider its decision.
Although Chinese officials claim to want others to better understand events inside China, Mr. Pompeo said, Beijing works to “deny the world the capacity to know what’s really going on” there.
Matt Murray, editor in chief of the Journal, said in a tweet: “China’s unprecedented attack on freedom of the press comes at a time of unparalleled global crisis. Trusted news reporting from and about China has never been more important. We oppose government interference with a free press anywhere in the world.”
“Our commitment to reporting fully and deeply on China is unchanged,” Mr. Murray added.
The Journal had previously condemned the expulsion in February of three reporters over an opinion headline, “the real sick man of Asia”—a phrase used historically to refer to the exploitation of a weakened China by European powers and Japan in the late 1800s and early 1900s. China’s Foreign Ministry and state-media outlets had repeatedly called attention to the headline, which prompted widespread anger in China, and threatened unspecified consequences.
Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron said the paper condemned Tuesday’s expulsion of U.S. reporters.
“The Chinese government’s decision is particularly regrettable because it comes in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis, when clear and reliable information about the international response to covid-19 is essential. Severely limiting the flow of that information, which China now seeks to do, only aggravates the situation,” Mr. Baron said.
New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet condemned the move, noting that reporters from his paper had worked in the country since the 1850s. “It is critical that the governments of the United States and China move quickly to resolve this dispute and allow journalists to do the important work of informing the public. The health and safety of people around the world depend on impartial reporting about its two largest economies, both of them now battling a common epidemic,” he said.
Time magazine Editor in Chief Ed Felsenthal said the magazine opposes restrictions on the free press anywhere in the world.
Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett said: “We remain committed to continuing to serve as a consistently reliable, trusted and authoritative source of news to our Chinese-speaking audiences.”
China has become increasingly combative with foreign media in recent years under leader Xi Jinping, as the government has attempted to exert greater control over information. Prior to the three Journal reporters in February, China hadn’t expelled a credentialed foreign correspondent since 1998.
Steven Butler, the Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, urged Beijing and Washington to “negotiate to solve their differences and stop taking measures that cripple news reporting during a global pandemic, when the public’s need for accurate information is greater than ever.”
Some 37 American news organizations had 98 accredited reporters based in China, primarily in Beijing, according to a roster published by China’s foreign ministry in July last year. The tally doesn’t account for the ejections of four Wall Street Journal reporters since then, or for other changes in personnel.
In China, press credentials are issued by the Foreign Ministry to non-Chinese journalists. The credentials are necessary to receive a journalist visa in China. The Wednesday announcement didn’t mention the visas themselves, but the revocation would effectively deprive the American journalists of the legal authorization to work in China.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said it deplored the Chinese government’s decision and that it affected at least 13 reporters.
“There are no winners in the use of journalists as diplomatic pawns by the world’s two pre-eminent economic powers,” the club said Wednesday.
China had expelled nine foreign reporters since 2013 before Tuesday’s action, according to the club, which promotes press freedoms. It added that 13 foreign reporters have been given truncated visas of six months or less since the beginning of 2019.
“Journalists illuminate the world we live in. China, through this action, is dimming itself,” it said.