Business & Economy

Beijing retaliates against US media for restrictions on Chinese press

Beijing, Oct 27 (efe-epa).- China demanded a written statement about the delegations of six American media outlets’ personnel, finances, operations and real estate in the country, in response to the latest restrictions on the activity of as many Chinese media companies in the United States.

The measure affects the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television network, the Los Angeles Times newspaper, Newsweek magazine, Minnesota Public Radio, Feature Story News and The Bureau of National Affairs (the latter, a subsidiary of the Bloomberg agency.)

The media have seven days to deliver the requested information, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a Monday night statement, adding it was a response to the “repression and stigmatization faced by China’s press and its staff in the United States.”

“China calls on the US to cease its political oppression and its arbitrary restrictions on the Chinese press. If they continue on the wrong path, there will be more retaliation from us,” he said.

Washington announced on Oct. 21 it would restrict the activity of six other Chinese media on the grounds that they make “propaganda” for the Communist Party of China (CCP).

This list includes the financial and technology news portal Yicai, the Jiefang Daily, Xinmin Evening News and Economic Daily, and the Beijing Review and Social Sciences in China Press magazines, which specialize in academic publications.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington “is not putting any restrictions on what these media can publish” and that its intention is “to ensure that the American people, consumers of information, can differentiate between the news written by the free press and the propaganda distributed by the CCP.”

The US will treat these six outlets as if they were Chinese government diplomatic missions, leaving journalists subject to the same restrictions as diplomats.

These restrictions are in addition to those imposed by Washington in February and March on nine other Chinese media, including state news agency Xinhua, official CGTN television; China Radio International station; official English newspaper China Daily and the company that distributes it, Hai Tian Development USA.

State television channel CCTV was also limited by restrictions along with state news agency China News Service, the People’s Daily and the Global Times, both from the same state media group.

Also, in March, the US announced limits on the number of Chinese nationals that Xinhua, CGTN, China Radio International and China Daily can have in the country

In response, Beijing in March expelled US correspondents from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

It also ordered the Chinese delegations of these three newspapers, as well as Time magazine and the US state media Voice of America, to declare in writing the information on their personnel, finances, operations and real estate in the country.

Chinese authorities also had to hand over this information to the Chinese delegations of the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International news agencies, the CBS television network and the National Public Radio station. EFE-EPA

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