US clamps down on Chinese media, imposes personnel cap

Continuing its clampdown on China's official media, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday put a cap on number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for ir five official outlets in America at any given time.

Xinhua News ncy, China Rio International, China Global Television Network and China Daily have been asked to reduce ir Chinese employees from 160 to 100, a senior State Department official.

y have been asked to comply with new limits by March 13, official said.

cap applies to five Chinese state media entities operating in US that have been designated as foreign missions, recognising that y are effectively controlled by Chinese government, Pompeo said on Monday.

"Unlike foreign media organisations in China, se entities are t independent news organisations," Pompeo said and alleged that for years, Chinese government has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment and intimidation against American and or foreign journalists operating in China.

President Donald Trump has me it clear that Beijing's restrictions on foreign journalists are misguided, he said ding that US government has long welcomed foreign journalists, including Chinese journalists, to work freely and without threat of reprisal.

" US government is today instituting a personnel cap on certain PRC-controlled state media entities in United States – specifically, five entities that were designated by US State Department on February 18, 2020, as foreign missions of People's Republic of China," he said.

"This cap limits number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for se organisations in United States at any given time," Pompeo said.

He said that decision to implement this personnel cap is t based on any content produced by se entities, r does it place any restrictions on what designated entities may publish in United States.

"Our goal is reciprocity. As we have done in or areas of US-China relationship, we seek to establish a long-overdue level playing field. It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to opt a more fair and reciprocal approach to US and or foreign press in China," he said.

Pompeo urged Chinese government to immediately uphold its international commitments to respect freedom of expression, including for members of press.

A senior ministration official told reporters that re is an assault on free speech inside of China that goes even beyond what it was a dece ago.

"According to Foreign Correspondents Club of China, we've also seen expulsion of nine foreign journalists from China since 2013. w, to put that into perspective, even Soviet Union used expulsions sparingly at height of Cold War, as contrasted with Beijing today," official said.

Foreign reporters who have been expelled tend to be reporters who have reported on topics that are critically important to an international audience, official said.

For example, Chinese Community Party's indoctrination camps and use of forced labour to export products to US consumers; high-level corruption and ways that wealth and power are employed by top leers, sometimes against interests of American business; how a virus first started spreing.

"So it's really accident also that expelled foreign journalists are ones who speak Chinese langu very well," said official who spoke on condition of anymity.

United States on or hand has issued 3,000 I-visas to Chinese nationals working in media , since 2015. By contrast, US news outlets have only about 75 American or or n-Chinese citizens working for m inside of mainland China.

Also, visas that we issue to Chinese propagandists have duration of stay. y can stay indefinitely on those visas. By contrast, Beijing currently imposes duration of stay on all foreign reporters in China, some as short as 30 days. So, after 30 days, some reporters have to reapply for an extension, official said.

"So one step that we'll be anuncing in near future is establishing limits on duration of stay for PRC nationals coming to United States on I-visas, which are category for representatives of foreign media," official said.

This merely creates some degree of reciprocity for foreign journalists in China who are increasingly getting se shorter and shorter durations of stay based on, frankly, how much Beijing dislikes ir reporting, official ted. PTI LKJ CPS