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
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.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday it was demanding that all U.S. nationals working for The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post whose press credentials expire by the end of the year turn those credentials in within 10 calendar days.
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 five outlets—the Journal, Times and Post as well as the Voice of America and Time—to submit information about staff, finances, operations and real estate in China.
Beijing’s 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 expulsion of American journalists. “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.,” The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, citing a spokesperson.
On March 2, the Trump administration announced a personnel cap on four state-run Chinese media outlets, 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 in response, China’s Foreign Ministry said, to a headline on an Opinion column that referred to China as “the real sick man of Asia.”
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.