US limits visas for Chinese journalists

The White House will from Monday dramatically tighten rules governing Chinese journalists working in the US.

The new visa conditions will be applied to Chinese journalist already working in the US as well as new arrivals. Picture: AFP

The White House will from Monday dramatically tighten rules governing Chinese journalists working in the US, the latest move in a tit-for-tat media feud that comes at a time of deteriorating relations between the two nations.

Under new rules unveiled by the Department of Homeland Security, the length of work visas for journalists from mainland China employed by non-US media will be reduced to a maximum of 90 days. Chinese reporters can apply for extensions, each one also limited to 90 days.

Previously, most mainland Chinese journalists working in the US were granted visas lasting the duration of their employment. The new limit will also apply to Chinese reporters already working in the US.

The new rules were in response to China’s “suppression of independent journalism”, the DHS said. The department cited Chinese expulsions of American reporters and Beijing’s increasing issuance of journalist visas lasting less than a year.

The US issued 425 visas to mainland Chinese nationals working for non-US media last year. Individual Chinese reporters sometimes apply for multiple visas in the same year as each visa is restricted to a single entry.

The 90-day limit won’t apply to reporters from Hong Kong or Macau, or to mainland Chinese citizens who hold green cards.

Washington and Beijing have been embroiled in an escalating back-and-forth involving journalists in recent months, part of continuing tensions over trade that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

In February, Beijing expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters, two Americans and one Australian, in what it said was a response to a headline on an opinion column in the paper that described China as “the real sick man of Asia”. None of the expelled reporters were involved in the writing of the column or headline.

In March, Washington announced a personnel cap on four state-run Chinese media outlets that the State Department had earlier classified as “foreign missions”, akin to embassies and consulates. Under the cap, Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Daily and China Radio International were forced to reduce their Chinese employees in the US from 160 to 100. Beijing followed this by revoking the press credentials of nearly every American working for The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.

When it comes to treatment of news media, Washington cannot level the playing field, said Richard McGregor, an expert of Chinese politics at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

“Beijing only wins a race to the bottom,” Mr McGregor said, pointing out that the majority of Chinese reporters in the US worked in a propaganda capacity for state-run media, while foreign journalists did independent reporting.

“It would be like exchanging rooks for pawns.”

The Wall Street Journal