Ministry vows response to Washington’s media curbs Editorial,

China will make a legitimate and necessary response to the United States after it designated another six Chinese media outlets as “foreign missions”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Thursday.

He said it was Washington’s “latest step of political suppression and stigmatization of Chinese media and journalists stationed in the US”.

“China firmly rejects and strongly condemns the US’ senseless moves,” Zhao said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Since February, 15 Chinese media outlets have been designated as “foreign missions” by the US.

The spokesman said that actions by the US that target Chinese media are based on a Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice. These actions have severely undermined the reputation and image of Chinese media, disrupted their normal operations in the US and obstructed cultural and people- to- people exchanges between the two sides, he said.

“It reveals the hypocrisy of the US’ self- proclaimed ‘ freedom of the press’,” Zhao said.

In recent years, the US has intensified its discrimination and suppression of Chinese media by putting arbitrary restrictions on its normal reporting activities.

Since 2018, the US has delayed and even denied the visas of 30 US- based Chinese journalists. In March, the US in effect expelled 60 Chinese journalists.

On May 11, the US announced its decision to limit visas for all Chinese journalists to a maximum 90- day stay. The visas of these journalists expired on Aug 6 and the US has not granted visa extensions to any of them so far.

“China urges the US to immediately change course, correct its mistakes, and stop the political oppression and senseless restrictions against Chinese media outlets,” Zhao said.

Responding to the US approval on Wednesday of a potential $ 1.8 billion arms sale to Taiwan, Zhao said that China will make a legitimate and necessary reaction as the situation develops, urging the US to withdraw its sales plan to prevent further damage to China- US relations.

Zhao noted that, by selling arms to Taiwan, the US seriously violates the one- China principle and the provisions of the three China- US joint communiques, especially the Aug 17 communique.

The sale seriously interferes with China’s internal affairs, seriously damages China’s sovereignty and security interests, sends a seriously wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces, and severely undermines China- US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, he said.

The latest US arms package includes sensors, missiles and artillery, according to Reuters.

It is no wonder that the Foreign Ministry has called on the United States to change its course, as it has been hijacked by the Cold War thinking and ideological prejudice of the current US administration. It seeks to portray anything Chinese as an agency of malevolence.

Having previously vowed to close down all Confucius Institutes in the US this year and to look into the operations of Chinese think tanks in the country, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that the State Department was designating the US operations of six more Chinabased media companies as foreign missions, bringing the number of Chinese media outlets designated as such this year to 15.

The moves targeting all these organizations that work to enhance Americans’ understanding of China are aimed at recalling the red- under- the- bed sentiment that prevailed in the US during the Cold War, especially during the McCarthy era, and is part of the US’ wider campaign to contain China.

At a news conference to announce the plan, Pompeo also said the US was launching a dialogue on China with the European Union on Friday, and that on Sunday he would begin a trip to India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia during which he expects to discuss how “free nations can work together to thwart threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party”.

China hit back in both February and June when the US designated the earlier batches of Chinese media outlets as foreign missions, and it is sure to do so this time.

The US has more media outlets operating in China than China has in the US, and it is no secret that some of them have long been engaging in acts of disrepute. For instance, their ugly performance during the unrest in Hong Kong since June last year has revealed their lack of journalistic ethics and politicized agendas, which have made them accomplices of the US administration’s overt interference in China’s internal affairs.

That being said, Beijing has every reason to pick out the few bad apples from the basket, and the US State Department’s move on Wednesday creates the opportunity for Beijing to take overdue moves to protect its social stability and national security.

As an important channel of people- to- people exchanges, media outlets play irreplaceable roles in promoting understanding between different countries, something that is particularly important for the US and China at this time.

Without clear and rational thinking on its China policy, and driven by the narrow ends of a small fraction of politicians, the US administration is dismantling the structure of Sino- US relations that was painstakingly built by generations of leaders and the two peoples. But those in the US who are trying to shake the edifice apart should be aware that the US is under that dome as well.