Chinese journalists’ lives and work disrupted by the latest US visa restrictions
- New rules limiting visas will affect all mainland reporters regardless of whether they work for Chinese state media
- The restrictions, expected to affect more than 500 reporters, will limit journalists’ stay to three months, with extensions possible
Du Chen is itching to return to the United States. Amid the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese tech reporter has been stranded in his native Beijing since he travelled there for the Lunar New Year holiday – and has come to realise that he has lived abroad for so long that almost all his friendships in the city have vanished.
Calling Du back to Silicon Valley, where he has lived with his wife since 2016, is his social life, much of his professional network and an empty flat for which he is still paying rent.
But also awaiting Du – if and when he is finally able to return – is a looming cloud of fresh uncertainty about his future in the US, in the wake of new visa restrictions that drastically limit the length of time Chinese journalists are allowed to work in the country.
Announced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on May 8 as a response to Beijing’s treatment of American journalists, the new regulations slash what was previously an indefinite permit for Chinese “I visa” holders to report from the US to just three months, with the option to apply for extensions.
Estimated by the DHS to affect more than 500 reporters this year, the move is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures both countries have taken targeting each other’s correspondents and outlets, with Beijing most recently having moved to expel American journalists working at three major US newspapers there.
After the expulsion by Beijing, many Chinese journalists in the US had been bracing for retaliation. But the new DHS rule’s sweeping remit – determined by an individual’s nationality rather than the kind of outlet they work for – has sent shock waves through the community.