China expels three Wall Street Journal reporters over ‘racist’ commentary as media becomes latest battleground in rivalry with US
- Beijing kicks out journalists hours after US brands state media outlets ‘foreign mission’ but insists move was prompted by ‘sick man of Asia’ opinion piece
- US newspaper says two Americans and an Australian, all of whom had covered Xinjiang, have been given five days to leave China
The news media became the latest focus of the escalating tensions between the US and China on Wednesday after Beijing expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters over a commentary it deemed racist.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a news conference that China had raised repeated objections to the US newspaper over the opinion piece headlined “China is the real sick man of Asia” and felt “regret” that the Journal had not offered a public apology.
The decision to revoke the reporting credentials was announced hours after the US declared that five Chinese media outlets were “foreign missions”, saying they were effectively under government control. Geng said in the same briefing that Beijing “reserved the right to respond” to this move.
The Wall Street Journal said the journalists — deputy Beijing bureau chief Josh Chin and Chao Deng, both US nationals, and Philip Wen, an Australian — had been given five days to leave the country.
All three had previously written about Xinjiang, where China has been accused of detaining up to a million Muslims in detention camps. Beijing says the camps are designed to combat extremism.
In August, China refused to renew the press card of Chun Han Wong, a Singaporean Wall Street Journal reporter based in Beijing.