US tightens visa rules for Chinese journalists amid coronavirus tensions

AMERICA issued a fresh rule on Friday (May 8) tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists, saying it had been in response to the treatment of US journalists in China, a shift that comes amid tensions between your two nations over the coronavirus global pandemic.

The United States and China have been engaged in a series of retaliatory actions involving journalists lately.

In March, China expelled American journalists from three US newspapers, a month after the United States said it would get started to take care of five Chinese state-run media entities with US operations the same as foreign embassies. 1 day after the US verdict on the state-run entities, Beijing expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents, two Americans and an Australian, following the publication of an view column that China denounced as racist.

In issuing the new regulation on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security cited what it called China's "suppression of independent journalism".

The regulation, which will take influence on Monday, will limit visas for Chinese reporters to a 90-day period, with the choice for extension. Such visas are usually open-ended , nor must be extended unless the employee moves to a new company or medium.

A senior DHS official, who requested anonymity to go over the matter, said the brand new rules allows the department to review Chinese journalist visa applications more often and would likely decrease the overall number of Chinese journalists in the usa.

“It’s likely to create greater national security protections,” the state said.

The new rules will not connect with journalists with passports from Hong Kong or Macau, China's two semi-autonomous territories, according to DHS.

Tensions between the United States and China have increased lately as the novel coronavirus has swept around the world, killing a lot more than 269,000 persons worldwide to date, according to a Reuters tally.

President Donald Trump said in late April that he was confident the coronavirus may have started in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to spell it out the data, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing over the origins of the deadly outbreak. The Chinese state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed the allegations. Most authorities believe the virus originated in market selling wildlife in Wuhan.