China expels Wall Street Journal reporters over 'racist' headline
20 February, 2020
China on Wednesday (Feb19) ordered three reporters from The Wall Street Journal to leave the country over what Beijing deemed a racist headline, in another of the harshest moves against foreign media in years.
The United States protested what it called an affront to press freedom, 1 day after it tightened rules on Chinese media organisations that it considers state propaganda.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the Journal op-ed - titled "China may be the Real Sick Man of Asia" - had a "racially discriminatory" and "sensational" headline, and slammed the newspaper for not issuing an official apology.
"As such, China has decided that from today, the press cards of three Wall Street Journal reporters in Beijing will be revoked," Geng told a press briefing.
The Journal reported that deputy bureau chief Josh Chin and reporter Chao Deng, both US nationals, together with reporter Philip Wen, an Australian, have been ordered to leave the country in five days.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the expulsions and voiced hope that China would 1 day allow its citizens "the same access to accurate information" that Americans enjoy.
"Mature, responsible countries recognize that a free of charge press reports facts and expresses opinions," Pompeo said in a statement.
"The correct response is to present counter arguments, not restrict speech," he said.
The three journalists are in the Wall Street Journal's news section, which is not from the editorial and opinion section.
The newspaper's publisher, William Lewis, said the outlet was "deeply disappointed" with China's decision and asked that the visas of the three reporters be reinstated.
"This judgment piece was published independently from the WSJ newsroom and none of the journalists being expelled had any involvement with it," Lewis said in a statement.
"The need for quality, trusted news reporting from China is higher than ever; today's decision to focus on our News department journalists greatly hinders that effort," he said.
"However, this has evidently caused upset and concern amongst the Chinese people, which we regret."
'NOT COMPLETELY COINCIDENTAL'
The op-ed, compiled by Bard College professor Walter Russell Mead, criticised the Chinese government's initial response to the brand new coronavirus outbreak - calling the Wuhan city government at the virus epicentre "secretive and self-serving", while dismissing national efforts as ineffective.
The phrase "sick man of Asia" originally described China in the late 19th and early 20th century, when it was exploited by foreign powers throughout a period sometimes called the country's "century of humiliation".
"At American newspapers, writers typically usually do not write or approve the news," Mead tweeted following the op-ed was published.
"Argue with the writer about the article content, with the editors about the news."
The brand new coronavirus epidemic has killed more than 2,000 persons in China and infected a lot more than 74,000, and has spread to at least two dozen countries.
Geng said the Feb 3 piece "slandered the efforts of the Chinese government and the Chinese persons to fight the epidemic".
The expulsions come a day following the USA angered China for classifying five state media outlets, including Xinhua agency and the China Global Television Network, as foreign missions, with STATE DEPT. officials saying these were part of Beijing's growing "propaganda" apparatus.
China's nationalistic Global Times newspaper on Wednesday implied a link between the WSJ expulsions and the new US policy.
"There are no connections between the two events, nonetheless it is not completely coincidental that they happened at a comparable time," it said an editorial on its English-language website.
"Together they show the ideological conflict between China and the united states is intensifying. The two countries' values are drifting apart ... This is not an excellent sign."
'EXTREME'
China's proceed to revoke the credentials of the three WSJ journalists marks a drastic escalation in strain on the international media. Multiple foreign reporters have already been effectively expelled over the past five years.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said the most recent move was an unprecedented type of retaliation. It said China hadn't outright expelled a foreign correspondent since 1998.
"The action taken against The Journal correspondents can be an extreme and clear attempt by the Chinese authorities to intimidate foreign news organisations," the FCCC said in a statement.
Nine journalists have been either expelled or effectively expelled through non-renewal of visas since 2013, it added.
In August, China refused to renew the press credentials of WSJ journalist Chun Han Wong, after he and Wen wrote articles using one of Chinese President Xi Jinping's cousins.
In 2018, Megha Rajagopalan, the Beijing bureau chief for BuzzFeed News, was effectively expelled from China after she was unable to renew her visa.
Prior to her expulsion, she had reported extensively from the northwest region of Xinjiang, where China has rounded up around one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in internment camps.
The three expelled Journal reporters had also reported on Xinjiang, covering forced labour, surveillance, and re-education camps.
A 2019 FCCC survey of 109 foreign journalists said many working in China have already been threatened with visa delays, or issued with short-stay visas, that they believed were related to their coverage.
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