The Trump administration ordered 4 Chinese state-owned news outlets to slash staff.
Starting March 13, four Chinese state-owned news outlets will be allowed to employ a combined of only 100 Chinese citizens in the U.S., down about 40% from now, per Bloomberg, this, as a part of a broader response to Beijing’s restrictions on American journalists including its expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters in February. The reductions, Bloomberg states, aren’t expulsions, though about 60 or so employees will almost certainly need to leave the country.
The outlets affected by the move are Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International and China Daily Distribution Corp. A fifth, Hai Tian Development USA, is also included under the cap but won’t have to cut staff because it has only two Chinese employees on its payroll in the U.S.
Even after reaching a phase-one trade deal earlier this year, the strategic battle between the world’s two biggest economies is affecting everything from manufacturing supply chains to 5G mobile-phone technology to the leadership of international organizations, and more restrictions are likely to come soon.
“Out of a Cold War mindset the U.S. is conducting political oppression on Chinese media agencies in the U.S.,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing. “We urge the U.S. to correct its mistake at once and we reserve the right to take further actions.”
Full story by Nick Wadhams, Peter Martin, and Joshua Gallu.
