Chinese authorities have been withholding residence visas for reporters working for the New York Times and Bloomberg in apparent retaliation for the agencies’ investigative stories on wealth accumulated by Chinese leaders’ families.
If authorities do not soon start approving renewals for visas due to expire by the end of the year, it would effectively shut down or significantly curtail the two organizations’ newsgathering operations in the country.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said in an e-mailed statement to members yesterday that none of the correspondents working for the Times and Bloomberg in China have been able to renew their residence visas for next year.
“The authorities have given no public explanation for their actions, leading to the impression that they have been taken in reprisal for reporting that displeased the government,” the statement said.
A Bloomberg spokeswoman in Singapore declined comment, while the Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Chinese Public Security Bureau, which grants residence permits, did not respond to a faxed list of questions.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) yesterday said at a regular briefing that China’s treatment of foreign journalists consistently follows laws and regulations.
US Vice President Joe Biden met with US journalists working in Beijing during his visit last week and publicly criticized their treatment by the Chinese government.
Biden also raised the issue directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The Times and Bloomberg have nearly two dozen journalists in China whose visas are up for renewal by the end of the month and Beijing has refused to act on them, the paper reported last week.
In addition, the Times has been unable to obtain resident journalist visas for its China bureau chief Philip Pan and correspondent Chris Buckley.
Beijing-based reporters from the Times were among those who met with Biden.
The newspaper said he told them that he warned Chinese leaders there would be repercussions for China if the journalists were expelled, especially in the US Congress. The Times said Biden told reporters that Xi insisted that foreign journalists were being treated according to Chinese law.
The two news organizations have had their Web sites blocked in China since late last year after each published detailed investigative reports exposing the enormous wealth amassed by the relatives of Chinese leaders — including Xi and former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶).
Chinese authorities had initially accepted resident journalist visa renewal applications from the Times’ reporters. However, they stopped doing so — and in some cases returned applications to reporters — after the newspaper ran a report last month detailing ties between JPMorgan Chase and a consultancy in China run by Wen’s daughter.
The Chinese-language Web sites of the Wall Street Journal and Thomson Reuters have also been blocked in China since last month.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS