China warns US over curbs on 4 more media outlets

China warned on Tuesday it will take countermeasures after the US added four more Chinese media outlets to a list of organizations that should be considered “foreign missions” in the United States.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the Trump administration’s move is “yet another example of the US’s flagrant political suppression of the Chinese media,” saying it would interfere with their reporting on the US and betray America’s commitment to freedom of the press.

“We strongly urge the United States to abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, and immediately stop and correct this wrong practice that serves no one’s interest. Otherwise China will have to make the necessary legitimate response,” Zhao said.

State Department officials said China Central Television, the China News Service, the People’s Daily and the Global Times will now be required to submit the identities of all staff in the US and any real estate holdings just like the foreign embassies and consulates.

“This is a very absurd decision,” Global Times editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin said. “China-US relation is so tense that market-oriented media like the Global Times has been affected. It is regrettable. The US is losing self-confidence and inclusiveness.”

Five Chinese news outlets designated earlier as foreign missions were Xinhua news agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International and the US distributors of the People’s Daily and China Daily.

The five organizations were later directed to cap the number of people they can employ in the United States in March.

China responded by revoking the media credentials of about a dozen American journalists at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.