WASHINGTON - The US is weighing whether to expel Chinese journalists after China kicked out three Wall Street Journal reporters, part of a push by the Trump administration to show leaders in Beijing that it will resist restrictions on Americans working in China.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are among those arguing for a more moderate approach, especially as the US needs to work with China in stemming the coronavirus outbreak, one person familiar with the discussions said. While declining to comment on specific actions under consideration, John Ullyot, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said last Friday that China's move against the American reporters was an"egregious act.""This expulsion is yet another attempt to control the press, and prevent the world's readers as well as investors from reading important stories about China," Ullyot said.
One of the reporters is among foreign journalists stuck in the central Chinese city of Wuhan after the government decided to restrict travel last month to curb the coronavirus outbreak. Zhao said separately Tuesday that the reporter could stay in Wuhan on"humanitarian grounds," but couldn't write. "Any suggestion that the United States should emulate the Chinese government's decision to expel three WSJ reporters by deporting Chinese journalists would be counterproductive and ultimately damaging to First Amendment principles for the entire press community in the United States," the Foreign Press Association, which represents foreign journalists working in the US, said in a statement when asked for comment.
That will allow the US to restrict their movements and limit the property they're permitted to own or rent. More crucially, the move also means China will have to turn over the identification of all personnel who work for those outlets.
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