American officials order four Chinese state-owned media outlets in U.S. to reduce staffs
Top Stories | Mar 13, 2020:
FORUM Staff
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in early March 2020 ordered four Chinese outlets operating in the United States to reduce the number of Chinese nationals working on their staffs, according to The Washington Post newspaper.
The restrictions affect Xinhua News Agency, the China Global Television Network, the parent company of the China Daily newspaper, and China Radio International. These organizations employ both Chinese and U.S. citizens, according to The Washington Post. Therefore, the new restrictions won’t completely eliminate their ability to cover news in the United States or their ability to continue producing propaganda.
The demand comes in the wake of a U.S. State Department decision to require five Chinese news organizations — considered to operate under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — to register as foreign missions and provide the names of their employees.
U.S. officials said the move is intended to encourage the CCP to show a greater commitment to free press, noting that only 75 American reporters were known to be working in China.
“As we have done in other areas of the U.S.-China relationship, we seek to establish a long-overdue level playing field,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pictured, said in a statement, according to The Washington Post. “It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to adopt a more fair and reciprocal approach to U.S. and other foreign press in China. We urge the Chinese government to immediately uphold its international commitments to respect freedom of expression, including for members of the press.”
The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported that Beijing in February 2020 expelled three of its reporters over a headline on an opinion column that the Chinese government said was offensive. The headline referred to China as “the real sick man of Asia.” The government action was part of a continuing campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to pressure foreign and domestic media to adopt its authorized version of events.
An unnamed U.S. official told The Washington Post that an assault on free speech is taking place inside the People’s Republic of China. He cited the disappearance of citizen journalists reporting in Wuhan on the ongoing China-originated coronavirus, known as COVID-19.
“Our goal is to get to a place where Beijing moves to a more accommodating posture toward journalists, including Americans,” an unnamed senior State Department official told The Washington Post.
“American news outlets aren’t part of the U.S. government,” the official told The Washington Post. “That’s the beauty of our system. They’re completely independent. It would be a shame if China decided it wanted to take things out on them.”
