The US is placing new restrictions on Chinese news outlets, forcing them to cut nearly half their US-based staff.
The move to limit the number of reporters is being seen as a retaliation for Beijing’s expulsion of two US journalists last month.
Five Chinese state outlets will be forced to reduce their US staff by 40%.
US officials accused China of a crackdown on free speech not seen since the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
The US state department said it was hearing of increasing harassment and surveillance of American and other foreign journalists in China.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that five media outlets, including China’s official news agency Xinhua, would be required to reduce their total number of staff to 100 from 160.
The rule change also applies to China Global Television Network, China Daily, China Radio International and the People’s Daily.
People’s Daily will not have to shrink its US staff, because none of its workers are Chinese nationals.
Although the journalists will not be forced to immediately leave the US, their visas are tied to their employment, making it very likely that they must go once they are axed.
This is an unprecedented move by the US government, which is currently not placing caps on US-based journalists from any other countries.
The five affected Chinese state media are the crown jewels of China’s propaganda media operation. Xinhua and People’s Daily have hundreds of millions of readers in China, with numerous smaller state media agencies reprinting their news reports. China Daily, China Global Television
Network and China Radio International, which report in English, mainly target the foreign audience.
China has implemented unofficial visa caps for foreign reporters for years. The US’ latest move aims to establish what Mr Pompeo called a “long-overdue level playing field”, but it is likely to fuel the increasingly acrimonious diplomatic tit for tat between Beijing and Washington, with
journalists caught in the crossfire.
Beijing will likely accuse the US of damaging freedom of the press. When the Chinese government faced criticism regarding the expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters last month, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying returned fire on Twitter: “Freedom of press? Do not forget how the White House treated CNN.”
