US Places Tighter Restrictions on Chinese Journalists

The United States has placed tighter restrictions on journalists from China, as tensions between the two countries continue to grow.

President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials have repeatedly claimed the Chinese government underplayed the country's role a lab in Wuhan, China, had in spreading coronavirus around the globe.

Chinese journalists who previously received open-ended visas will now only be able to obtain 90-day work visas, with the option to apply for 90-day extensions, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In March, at least 13 reporters from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post faced expulsion from the Chinese government as a retaliation to the Trump administration for limiting access to Chinese media members.

The expulsion was a response to a move from U.S. officials that reduced workers allowed from five state-controlled Chinese news organizations from 160 to 100.

"Based on the treatment by the [People's Republic of China (PRC)] of foreign journalists, including U.S. citizens, DHS has determined that the PRC is not treating journalists in a manner that admitting . . . visa holders for the duration of status is sufficiently reciprocal to the treatment accorded by the PRC to U.S. journalists or in alignment with U.S. foreign policy," DHS said in a press release. 

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