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.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the