Foreign press associations in China expressed alarm yesterday over recent incidents of intimidation directed against foreign media workers, including the alleged beating of a Japanese journalist.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Clubs of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong said they were “extremely concerned” by four recent cases of journalists who had been harassed or subjected to violence while reporting in China.
A joint statement cited the alleged beating of a journalist from Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily by police while covering a demonstration in eastern China last month.
His equipment, worth several thousand dollars, was taken and had not been returned, it said.
Other incidents included an assault on a Hong Kong TV reporter outside the court in eastern China where Gu Kailai (谷開來), wife of disgraced former Chinese Communist Party Chongqing secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來), stood trial for murder this month.
“We are particularly concerned that a number of these incidents have involved members of the official security forces and associated elements,” the statement said.
“We call on the authorities at all levels to ensure that journalists are protected from violence and intimidation,” the statement said.
China’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the statement, which came after al-Jazeera’s correspondent in May became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from the country since 1998.
The statement also cited an attack on a German TV crew who were accused of being spies and forcibly detained for nine hours at a chemical factory before police escorted them to their vehicles.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese