The Chinese Foreign Ministry has levelled further criticism against the US newspaper The New York Times following the expulsion from China of one of its journalists.
Spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday that the newspaper had provided the "Taiwanese authorities" with a platform to spread “separatist false claims” and had referred to Taiwan as a state, following the publication of a report which had quoted the Taiwanese president.
This, Lin said, constituted a violation of the "One China" principle and agreements between the US and China.
The New York Times’ editor-in-chief, Joseph Kahn, said the expulsion would make it even harder for a global audience to obtain accurate, independent and well-researched reporting on the world’s second-largest economy at a crucial juncture.
China claims the independently governed Taiwan as its own and seeks to bring it under its control. Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party are characterized by Beijing as separatists because the party advocates the island republic’s independence.
"The New York Times should correct its errors," China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman demanded, and accused the paper of conducting interviews under false pretences and thereby violating the law.
At the same time, he criticized the US for taking action against a reporter from the state news agency Xinhua as a countermeasure. According to the New York Times, the administration of US President Donald Trump has revoked his visa.
Foreign correspondents in China have been complaining for years about increasingly difficult working conditions. The organization Reporters Without Borders ranks China 178th out of 180 in its press freedom index. Only North Korea and Eritrea were lower on the list.
