September 7, 2020
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China is very alarmed that Chinese authorities have stopped renewing press credentials for journalists working at US news organizations.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has instead issued letters in lieu of press cards that force foreign journalists based in China into a precarious, temporary status.
At least five journalists at four US news organizations have been affected in recent days, including the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Bloomberg. The FCCC notes with dismay that journalists of different nationalities, including US citizens, have been impacted. More foreign journalists based in China are expected to receive these letters.
The Chinese government has explicitly said the move comes in response to a looming visa expiry deadline of November 6 for Chinese journalists based in the US, most of whom work for Chinese state media.
MOFA has further indicated that the letters issued to foreign journalists in China could be revoked at any time, thus putting them at constant threat of expulsion.
These coercive practices have again turned accredited foreign journalists in China into pawns in a wider diplomatic conflict.
The FCCC calls on the Chinese government to halt this cycle of tit-for-tat reprisals in what is quickly becoming the darkest year yet for media freedoms.
In the first half of 2020 alone, China expelled a record 17 foreign journalists by cancelling their press credentials. At least another dozen foreign correspondents in China have received punitive truncated-term visas, sometimes for as short as one month, rather than the standard year-long visas.
This comes in addition to increasing harassment and surveillance of foreign journalists, including physical assault and cyber attacks, documented in distressing detail in the FCCC’s annual working conditions report.