US lists 6 more China news outlets as foreign missions

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US on Wednesday designated the US operations of six additional Chinese media outlets as foreign missions amid escalating tensions with Beijing.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said all of the companies were "substantially-owned or effectively-controlled by" the Chinese government, but said the listing of the outlets will not restrict the information they can publish in the US.

"We simply want to ensure that the American people, consumers of information, can differentiate between news written by a free press, and propaganda distributed by the Chinese Communist Party itself," he told reporters at the State Department. "They’re not the same thing."

The State Department listed the newly designated outlets as Yicai Global, Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News, Social Sciences in China Press, Beijing Review, and Economic Daily.