China Announces Retaliation against US Media

On Wednesday, China demanded that four U.S. news organizations provide the government with information on their staff, finances and real estate holdings within the country, in what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said was retaliation for the recent actions of the Trump administration against Chinese news outlets in the United States, reports The New York Times.

However, the Chinese government has avoided reporting the removal of journalists from all of the four American organizations: Associated Press, CBS News, National Public Radio, and United Press International. The incident is the latest in a string of tit-for-tat conflicts over the handling of media, part of growing tension between the two powers.

In March, China asked five other US media organizations to provide updates on their activities. Almost all American journalists working for three of them were also expelled: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

The expulsions followed a decision by the Trump administration in February to designate China's five preeminent state-run news organizations as foreign government functionaries, subject to rules similar to those that apply to diplomatic missions.

The administration in March also reduced the number of Chinese state-media employees permitted to work in the United States from 160 to 100. Then, in June, the administration listed four additional Chinese news agencies as foreign missions.

Wednesday's move came as China began to enforce a new national security law in Hong Kong that limits free expression in the semiautonomous territory, raising doubts about reporters' ability to effectively cover China from anywhere in the country.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, called Wednesday's request for information a "necessary countermeasure" against last month's US action, which he said constituted "unreasonable suppression" of Chinese news outlets in the United States.

Representatives for The Associated Press and National Public Radio said they were reviewing the Chinese authorities' request. CBS News and United Press International did not immediately reply when approached for comment.

US and other foreign correspondents in China say the working environment there has worsened considerably in recent years. Police have harassed journalists and their interview subjects, and some reporters have received limited work permits as punishment for coverage that is critical of the government.

Yet the current phase of confrontation between Washington and Beijing started in earnest as the State Department declared in February that it will continue to recognize five Chinese state-controlled news organizations as diplomatic missions.

One day after the department announced its plans to reclassify the Chinese state-media employees working in the United States as foreign government workers, China said it was expelling three Wall Street Journal reporters.

China said the move was in retaliation for a headline on an opinion article, which the expelled reporters were not involved with. The headline, "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia," used a term freighted with associations to China's weakness in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.