May 31, 2023 2:48 PM
·
VOA News
FILE - An Indian border officer checks the documents of a traveler at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, India, March 7, 2020. In a visa spat, India and China have expelled nearly all of each other’s journalists in recent weeks
China
said on Wednesday it had taken “appropriate” action in response to what it
called India’s “unfair and discriminatory” treatment of Chinese journalists, in
the latest move that underscores rising tensions between the Asian countries.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that China and India
have expelled nearly all of each other’s journalists in recent weeks.
The
Indian government in May rejected visa renewals for the last two Chinese state
media journalists in the country, the newspaper said. One works for Xinhua and
the other works for China Central Television.
Indian
outlets had four journalists still based inside China, but at least two of them
haven’t been granted visas to return to the country, the Journal said. A third
was told that his accreditation had been revoked, but he is still in China.
Relations
between the world’s two most populous countries have worsened since a deadly
clash on the contested Sino-Indian border in 2020.
A
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Chinese reporters had been treated
unfairly in India for years.
“What
I can tell you is that for a long time, Chinese journalists have suffered
unfair and discriminatory treatment in India, and in 2017, the Indian side
shortened the visa validity of Chinese journalists to three months or even one
month for no reason,” Mao Ning, the spokesperson, said at a briefing.
“In
the face of this prolonged and unreasonable suppression by the Indian side, the
Chinese side had to take appropriate countermeasures to safeguard the
legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese media,” Mao said.
“The
visa of the last remaining Chinese journalist in India has also expired,” she
said.
Ananth
Krishnan, a correspondent for India’s The Hindu, tweeted on Wednesday, “We’re down to only
one accredited Indian reporter in Beijing — and unfortunately, probably zero
soon.”
Mao
said a return to normal was contingent on “whether India can work in the same
direction as China, and provide the same convenience and assistance to Chinese
journalists in India.”
India’s
Washington embassy did not immediately respond to a VOA email requesting
comment.
This
is not the first time China has engaged in a tit-for-tat spat over journalist
visas. Beijing expelled several U.S. journalists in 2020 after Washington moved
to limit the number of Chinese state media reporters in the United States.
Neither
China nor India is a particularly staunch defender of press freedom within its
own borders. Out of 180 countries, India ranks at No. 161 in terms of press
freedom, and China ranks at No. 179, according to the media freedom watchdog
Reporters Without Borders.
Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse
and Reuters.
https://www.voanews.com/a/journalists-expelled-in-china-india-visa-fight/7117327.html
China, India Kick Out
Nearly All of Each Other’s Journalists as Rivalry Escalates
Rift that opened with deadly border clash
deepens as neighbors deny reporter visas
By
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