Beijing warns US over tighter visa rules for Chinese press

BEIJING • China has warned it will take countermeasures in response to a US decision to tighten visa terms for Chinese journalists and urged the United States to immediately "correct its mistake".

Last week, the US issued a new rule limiting visas for Chinese reporters to a 90-day period, with the option for an extension, that took effect yesterday. Such visas are typically open-ended and do not need to be extended, unless the employee moves to a different company or medium.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian yesterday told reporters during a daily briefing that China deplored the US decision, which he called an escalation of suppression against Chinese media. "We require the US to immediately correct its mistake, or China will have no choice but to take countermeasures."

The US and China have been engaged in a series of retaliatory actions involving journalists.

In March, China expelled American journalists from three US newspapers, a month after the US said it would begin to treat five Chinese state-run media entities with US operations as foreign embassies.

Earlier, China expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters - two Americans and an Australian - after the paper published an opinion column calling China the "real sick man of Asia".

In issuing the new regulation last Friday, the US Department of Homeland Security cited what it called China's "suppression of independent journalism".

Mr Zhao said: "For a period of time, the US has stuck to a Cold War mentality and ideological bias, and it has continuously escalated its suppression of Chinese media.

"Now they're using visas to take discriminatory limitations, severely disrupting the Chinese media's ability to report normally in the US, severely disrupting people-to-people relations between our two countries."

REUTERS