The number of journalists legally permitted to work in the US offices of Beijing’s top five media organizations will be cut, while those journalists will see the amount of time they can stay in the US reduced, State Department officials told reporters on Monday. The move affects Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, People’s Daily Distribution Corp., and China Daily Distribution Corp.

The number of journalists legally permitted to work in the US offices of Beijing’s top five media organizations will be cut, while those journalists will see the amount of time they can stay in the US reduced, State Department officials told reporters on Monday. The move affects Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, People’s Daily Distribution Corp., and China Daily Distribution Corp.

"For years, the [Chinese] government has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment and intimidation against American and other foreign journalists in China," a senior official was quoted by Reuters. The announcement came in response to China’s decision to expel three Wall Street Journal employees last month over an oped calling coronavirus-stricken China the “real sick man of Asia.” However, the US had previously reclassified the same five media outlets as “diplomatic missions,” placing them under tighter government scrutiny.

Now some of the same reporters that Washington called “propaganda agents for Beijing” may find themselves unceremoniously hustled out of the country. 

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