President Trump should consider imposing new restrictions on “Chinese government-controlled media” operating in the United States, according to a senior Republican lawmaker, after two journalists with Voice of America were arrested and released on Monday.
“The administration should be persistently and clearly demanding press freedom reciprocity with China and, if more journalists are detained in the future, considering ways to reduce the U.S. footprint of Chinese government-controlled media,” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told the Washington Examiner.
American officials typically give foreign journalists a wide berth in the U.S., while hoping that other governments provide the same latitude to U.S.-based media outlets working abroad. But Smith, who co-chairs a bicameral congressional committee focused on China, suggested rethinking that policy for the leading Communist power after two journalists working for Voice of America were detained while trying to interview a critic of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Chinese state-controlled media have long enjoyed freedoms in the U.S. not afforded to American journalists in China, and this is becoming a serious concern because these freedoms are often exploited by the Chinese government to expand their propaganda or political influence networks,” Smith said.
VOA correspondent Yibing Feng and VOA contractor Allen Ai were arrested Monday while trying to interview a professor who recently returned home after being arrested during an interview with other VOA reporters.
“I was just released from the hands of secret police in Jinan, with all my cell phones destroyed by them,” Feng wrote in an email to his editor, per VOA. “They separated Allen from me during these hours.”
Feng’s equipment is U.S. government property because VOA is funded through an independent agency overseen by the State Department.
“The detention of VOA reporter — and U.S. citizen — Yibing Feng was brazenly heavy-handed, even by China’s low standards for press freedom,” Smith said. “Though Feng and VOA contractor Allen Ai were released, the harassment and threats faced by foreign journalists in China is an ongoing and acute problem.”
