The U.S. government said Monday it will limit the number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for five Chinese state media outlets operating in the United States to a total of 100, in response to what it sees as longstanding unfair treatment of foreign journalists by Beijing.
The five entities, including Xinhua News Agency and China Global Television Network, which falls under Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, were designated on Feb. 18 as "foreign missions" of China, requiring them to submit information on their employees and property holdings in the United States.
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The other Chinese media outlets that have been labeled as "foreign missions" under the Foreign Missions Act were China Radio International, the China Daily newspaper and Hai Tian Development USA, the distributor for The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China.
According to a senior State Department official, the 100 spots for Chinese employees will be allocated among four of the entities, excluding Hai Tian Development which apparently has no Chinese personnel based in the United States. The outlets currently employ a total of about 160 Chinese citizens.
"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," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in announcing the latest measure, adding that the U.S. goal is to ensure a "level playing field."
"Our goal is reciprocity...It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to adopt a more fair and reciprocal approach to U.S. and other foreign press in China," he said in a statement.
China's Foreign Ministry denied the U.S. allegations, accusing Washington of discriminating against Chinese journalists in recent years by refusing or delaying visas.
Washington's "Cold War mentality and ideological bias" has seriously damaged bilateral relations and China reserves the right to take countermeasures, ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said during a regular press briefing in Beijing.
Pompeo noted that the decision to implement the personnel cap is not based on any content produced by the five entities, nor does it place any restrictions on what the designated entities may publish in the United States.
The U.S. designation of the five entities was seen as reflecting a growing wariness within the administration of President Donald Trump about China's rise as a great power and its spying and other activities within the United States.
China, meanwhile, said on Feb. 19 that it has revoked the press credentials of three journalists for The Wall Street Journal after the U.S. newspaper published an op-ed on the impact of the spread of the coronavirus, which the country deemed racist and slanderous.
The article by Bard College professor Walter Russell Mead was titled "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia." The "sick man" was a discriminatory phrase referring to China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by foreign powers.
The State Department official said that the personnel cap, to be effective on March 13, was not linked to any particular incident.
Related coverage:
U.S. labels 5 Chinese media outlets as "foreign missions"
China says media blatantly insulting country must pay price
