China bashes US restrictions on its journalists

By James Reinl

UNITED NATIONS (AA) — One of the most senior Chinese diplomats in the United States on Monday bashed the Trump administration for “interfering” in press freedoms by cutting the number of Chinese journalists allowed to work in the U.S.

Speaking with reporters in New York, China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun said Washington had failed to live up to its own “freedom of expression” principles with a clampdown on Beijing-backed reporters.

“This is a country [that] advocates of freedom of expression and this is a country which is supposed to give full support to the work of correspondents,” Zhang said at a monthly press briefing at UN headquarters.

“And, yes indeed, between China and the United States, we have some differences. But we do not think it’s appropriate for the United States to take steps interfering [in] the work of journalists coming from China.”

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. cut by almost half the number of Chinese passport holders permitted to work for government-run media outlets on U.S. soil, saying it was pushing back against a similar crackdown by Beijing.

The move by Washington came two weeks after Beijing kicked out three Wall Street Journal correspondents after a controversial editorial appeared in that paper criticizing China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

An official with the U.S. State Department said that five Chinese media outlets, which were recently reclassified by the U.S. as foreign missions, would be permitted to employ no more than 100 Chinese nationals from the middle of next month, down from some 160 now.

“Unlike foreign media organizations in China, these entities are not independent news organizations,” said Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, in a statement.

“The decision to implement this personnel cap is not based on any content produced by these entities, nor does it place any restrictions on what the designated entities may publish in the United States.”