Posted on 03/03/2020 7:18:53 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The Trump administration said March 2 that it will reduce the number of Chinese staff allowed to work at several major Chinese state-run media outlets in the United States.
The move was described by senior administration officials as an act of reciprocity against Beijing’s continued use of “intimidation to silence members of a free and independent press.”
The Chinese regime has been presiding over a “deepening crackdown” on independent journalism within the country, two administration officials told reporters on a call on March 2, citing recent examples such as the disappearance of citizen journalists covering the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, and the arrest of Jimmy Lai, founder of Hong Kong-based independent newspaper Apple Daily, in Hong Kong on charges connected to his participation in the city’s pro-democracy protests last year.
Last month, the regime revoked the visas of three Wall Street Journal reporters in Beijing after saying the newspaper refused to apologize for a “racially discriminatory” headline of an op-ed piece, which had called China the “real sick man of Asia.” Another reporter with the paper had to leave last year after Beijing declined to renew his visa.
“For years, the government of the People’s Republic of China has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation against American and other foreign journalists operating in China,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
Effective March 13, Washington will cap the number of U.S.-based employees at Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, and China Daily Distribution Corp. at 100, a reduction from the current 160.
They are among the five Chinese state-run outlets designated by the U.S. State Department as “foreign missions” in February. No action was taken against the fifth company, Hai Tian Development USA, which is the U.S. distributor of Chinese Communist Party
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
Sounds like good news.
Perhaps, folks will pay attention to the owners of Reddit and their business practices.
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