China expels 3 WSJ reporters for op-ed accusing Beijing of hiding scale of coronavirus

The latest expulsion of journalists by the Chinese government is part of a series of crackdown on the foreign press starting from 2012.

File photo of people in masks outside the Shanghai railway station in coronavirus-hit China | ANI

New Delhi: The Chinese government ordered three Wall Street Journal correspondents to leave the country Wednesday and revoked their press credentials because they did not apologise for an opinion article carried by the publication, written by a Bard College professor.

Deputy Bureau Chief – Josh Chin and reporter Chao Deng, both of whom are American citizens, as well as reporter Philip Wen, an Australian national have been ordered to leave the country in the next five days. The contentious article was an opinion article written by Walter Russell Mead, titled China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia, and was published on 3 February.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry criticised the Journal of usual racially discriminatory language and offending Chinese people. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, “The editors used such a racially discriminatory title, triggering indignation and condemnation among the Chinese people and the international community.” He also went on to say, “The piece slandered the efforts of the Chinese government and the Chinese people to fight the epidemic.”

In his article, Mead accused the Chinese authorities of concealing the true scale of the problem and said that the country’s initial response to the new coronavirus outbreak was “less than impressive,” referring to the Wuhan city government as “secretive and self-serving.”

Past history of expelling journalists

The expulsion of the three journalists comes only months after Chinese officials expelled another Journal reporter, Chun Han Wong. The reason for his removal was not stated, however it came after Wong co-wrote an article about Xi Jinping’s cousin.

The move also comes less than a day after the US stated that it would treat five government-controlled Chinese news organisations – Xinhua, CGTN, China Radio, China Daily and People’s Daily, as foreign government functionaries. Which is similar to how diplomats are stationed in America.

In August 2018, former Buzzfeed China Bureau chief – Megha Rajagopalan who reported on how China treats the Uyghur Muslims population in Xinjiang, was forced to leave the country after the government refused to renew her journalist visa.

Rajagopalan’s case is part of a series of cases where the Chinese government has cracked down on journalists. In 2015, French reporter Ursula Gauthier and in 2012 US journalist Melissa Chan were both expelled from the country. While US journalists Paul Mooney and Austin Ramzy (who works at the New York Times) were denied visas to work in China, with Ramzy being forced to leave the country due to alleged visa delays. It has been reported that the reason for not giving them visa was because of their reporting on human rights issues and because their news organisations had “dug into top leaders’ murky web of wealth.”