US tightens curbs on Chinese media

China on Tuesday threatened to launch an “appropriate response” after Washington, DC cracked down on four more Chinese state media outlets in the United States.

Beijing decried Monday’s move by the US state department as “bare-faced political suppression of Chinese media” which “further exposes the hypocrisy of the so-called freedom of speech and press which the US likes to flaunt”.

“We strongly urge the US to reject this Cold War mindset and ideological bias... otherwise China will have no choice but to make an appropriate response,” said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a routine briefing.

China had expelled more than a dozen US journalists from the country this year. The state department denounced four organisations - China Central Television, the China News Service, the People’s Daily and the Global Times - as foreign missions and “propaganda outlets”, adding them to five others designated in February. Beijing hit back in March by expelling US citizens working for three major US newspapers - The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

TRUMP: TRADE DEAL WITH CHINA STILL ON

US President Donald Trump said an initial trade agreement with China is still on after a top White House adviser’s comments seemed to suggest it was over, spooking markets.

Trump tweeted, “The China Trade Deal is fully intact. Hopefully they will continue to live up to the terms of the Agreement!”

Peter Navarro, director of trade and manufacturing policy at the White House, had told Fox News “it’s over”, when asked a question that was focused on the China trade deal.

When contacted by Associated Press, Navarro said his comments had been taken out of context and had nothing to do with the Us-china deal.