New Delhi: After a Wall Street Journal report said that there will no longer be any reporters from China in India, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday, May 31, that it has “no choice but to take appropriate counter-measures”.
While the two countries had begun freezing out journalists in March, WSJ reported on Tuesday that the process was all but complete. For the first time since the 1980s, there would be no Chinese reporters in India after the last two state media reporters – from Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television – had been asked to leave, the newspaper said.
On Wednesday, during her daily briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that Chinese journalists “have suffered unfair and discriminatory treatment in India for a long time”. She referred to the shortening of visa validity held by Chinese journalists in India to three months or even one month “without any valid reason” in 2017. Mao said that since 2020, the Indian side “has refused to review and approve Chinese journalists’ applications for stationing in India”.
“As a result, the number of Chinese journalists stationed in India has plummeted from 14 at the normal time to just one. As we speak, the Indian side still has not renewed the visa of the last Chinese journalist in the country. The number of Chinese journalists stationed in India is about to drop to zero,” she said.
She said considering this situation, the Chinese side “has no choice but to take appropriate counter-measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese media organisations”. Mao, however, claimed that China “is still willing to maintain communication with India under the principles of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit”.
“We hope that India will work in the same direction with China, seriously respond to China’s legitimate concerns, and take concrete steps as soon as possible to create favourable conditions for restoring normal exchange between the media organisations of the two countries,” Mao said.