Two weeks later, China expelled journalists working for the three American papers. Mr. Trump’s administration retaliated in early May, restricting Chinese journalists to 90-day visas to work in the United States. Previously, Chinese journalists were given yearlong visas that allowed them to leave the United States and return throughout their stay.
The confrontation over journalists was part of a deteriorating relationship between the United States and China during the Trump administration, which clashed with Beijing over tariffs and other economic issues as well as Mr. Trump’s repeated condemnations of the Chinese government over the Covid-19 outbreak.
After initially saying that China had worked “very hard to contain the coronavirus,” Mr. Trump later repeatedly used the phrase “China virus” to describe its origins.
Mr. Biden has also taken a hard line with China, but has sought to dial back the rhetoric between officials. American officials said the virtual summit between the two leaders on Monday was designed in part to ensure that misunderstandings and heated rhetoric do not lead to outright conflict with China.
Mr. Schell, who helped facilitate conversations between State Department officials and leading journalists several months ago to discuss the issue, said Mr. Xi’s willingness to accept the new arrangement might indicate that he understands the importance of the news media, even in a country like China.
“They do recognize that to have any kind of an economic relationship you do need to have some sort of journalistic interchange,” he said, adding that such an arrangement between two countries has been seen before.
“During the Cold War, we had just such an understanding with Russia,” Mr. Schell said. “There was an agreement that Russians got the same number here and we got the same number there.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/politics/us-china-journalists.html
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.