Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry

China urged the US to stop the political suppression of Chinese media and journalists and said it will be compelled to make a legitimate response if the US goes its own way as none of the Chinese journalists in the US have received visa extensions after they applied. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at Tuesday’s media briefing that none of the Chinese journalists in the US who applied for visa extensions after the US limited visas for Chinese journalists in the country to 90 days in May have yet received a clear response.
 
If the US continues on its wrong path, China will surely be forced to make a proper response and resolutely safeguard its own legitimate rights and interests, Wang said. 

As for questions on whether US reporters in the Hong Kong Administrative Region (SAR) will be targeted as part of China’s countermeasures, Wang said that the Hong Kong SAR is part of China, and any necessary and proper response that China is forced to take against the US unreasonable suppression of Chinese media in the US falls under the  diplomatic jurisdiction of the central government.

Wang made the remarks after the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on May 8 that Chinese reporters working for non-US media outlets would be restricted to 90-day work visas and will be permitted to apply for extensions of up to 90 days. The new rule took effect on May 11. 

Wang said that the US has been intensifying its political repression against the Chinese media out of a Cold War mentality and ideological bias. Some 20 Chinese journalists have had their visa applications rejected or delayed indefinitely by the US side since 2018. 

On the one hand, the US claims to practice freedom of the press, but on the other, it has interfered and obstructed in the normal reporting of Chinese journalists in the US, which exposed the hypocrisy of the US' so-called press freedom and its double standards and hegemony, Wang said. 

Global Times