Retaliating for China's treatment of US journalists, Trump limits number of Chinese journalists
WASHINGTON _ The Trump administration on Monday ordered several leading Chinese media organizations to dismiss 60 U.S.-based Chinese nationals in retaliation for a "long-standing trend" of actions by Beijing against journalists, including the expulsion last month of three Wall Street Journal reporters.
The action could effectively force many of the Chinese nationals to leave the United States. It applies only to Chinese nationals, not employees of other nationalities.
The Chinese state-controlled New China News Agency and three other organizations will be required to reduce their total staff of 160 Chinese nationals to 100, senior State Department officials said. In the case of New China News Agency, for example, only 59 Chinese nationals may be employed. Overall, the reduction is nearly 40% of the companies' U.S.-based staff.
Administration officials cited the expulsion last month of three Wall Street Journal reporters, but also a string of measures against both Chinese and American journalists, including the disappearance of so-called citizen journalists who reported on the beginnings of the coronavirus in China.
They emphasized what they described as the distinction between independent U.S. media and "propaganda organs" that work at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.
_ Los Angeles Times
