Will the “Media War” between China and the U.S. Come Out From the Shadows After Biden Takes Office?
The original piece in Mandarin was published on the New York Times https://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20210127/expelled-from-us-a-chinese-journalist-has-hope/. The following is a translated version in English.
In March of 2020, my child and I were forced to come back to China from the U.S..
At the beginning of last year, my 6-month-old child still couldn’t walk or talk, but now, he won’t stop running and jumping around. He has also learned how to say “dad” and “mom” warmly, and he even learned his first English word, “up”.
Aside from my child’s growing up, staying “up” — emotionally — has become a matter of faith for me throughout these past months full of tough situations.
At the end of 2019, I was sent by China Global Television Network (CGTN) to the U.S. as a Chinese correspondent. The designated duration of my work in America was supposed to be three years. However, only three months later, due to the increasing tension between China and the U.S., the American government suddenly implemented a cap policy on five state-owned Chinese media organizations. Consequently, sixty Chinese journalists, including me, were forced to leave the U.S.. This all happened at the beginning of the COVID-19 global outbreak, so my trip back to China with my child involved various stressful transfers and lasted more than 30 hours.
Immediately after my expulsion, many of us Chinese journalists that had been expelled chose to stay silent. Later, however, I realized that our silence wasn’t bringing any peace or improvement to the situation. Seeing the space of communication between the two countries continuously diminish, I decided to speak out about this media crisis. After looking back and examining the experiences of the journalists from both sides, we can say that it is urgent that both countries reopen themselves to the other’s media.
This “media war” was actually initiated long before the expulsions. In February of last year, the Trump administration announced that five Chinese media organizations would be monitored and regulated as foreign government functionaries, subject to similar rules as diplomats stationed in the U.S. The following day, three Beijing-based Wall Street Journal reporters’ press cards were revoked by China, which forced them to leave the country. The action was seen as a punishment in response to a commentary piece published by the Journal titled “China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia”. The article criticized how the Chinese government had been dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic. However, the piece was seen as defamation in China — particularly, the title, which was considered blatantly racist and caused widespread indignation among Chinese people.
On the day we were informed of our expulsion, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized how China had “imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation” against foreign journalists operating in China. He claimed that the goal of the U.S.’s cap policy was reciprocity. “It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to adopt a more fair and reciprocal approach to U.S. and other foreign press in China. ” he stated.
The action did bring reciprocity. Half a month later, China took a reciprocal action against the American media in China. 13 American journalists ( including 7 from the New York Times) suffered similar setback as we did.
During my work in the U.S., I covered the China-U.S. phase one trade deal, the U.S. presidential primary and the COVID-19 epidemic in both English and Chinese. Due to how sudden my expulsion was, the company has needed time to reorganize everything and rearrange my work. So, until now, I am still in China, waiting for my next assignment to a new country.
Here in China, I can only analyze China-U.S. relations and follow American stories through news reports of others. This has been extremely frustrating. I was supposed to be on the front-lines of these news events, but because of my expulsion, I’ve been thoroughly deprived of my function as a correspondent. Many other Chinese and American journalists who were forced to leave their work due to the dispute must be feeling the same way that I am.
On the other hand, as for the Chinese journalists who are still in the U.S., their work has doubled since the rest of us departed. Some of them have seen their work visas limited to a shorter time. Their lives are unstable and unpredictable. In recent years, and particularly in the past months, American journalists based in China have faced similar difficulties. They have said that they need to renew their visas every one to three months.
As the new year approaches, we, here in China, frequently hear a common saying of ours: bid farewell to the old and usher in the new.
President Trump left office and Joe Biden has become the 46th U.S. President. Like many Chinese and American journalists, I hope that this is an opportunity for U.S.-China relations to be renewed, despite the Trump administration continuing to make things worse at the end of its governance.There is already plenty of analysis and no shortage of predictions about the future of the political and economic ties between the two countries. If so, then what about the free exchange of media? Can the two countries walk out of the shadow in this area as well?
I talked with some Chinese and American journalists, and I decided to survey them. Essentially, all of them think that the current restrictions on visas for foreign media workers in both countries will be loosened, but that there won’t be any huge changes in regards to diplomatic relations.
During this past year, most of the restrictive policies on Chinese media in America were initiated by the U.S. State Department. At a recent Senate confirmation hearing, Secretary of State Antony Brinken agreed with President Trump in “taking a tougher approach to China.” But in terms of how he views the way that Trump executed his approach, Brinken disagrees “very much … in a number of areas”. As opposed to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Brinken has visited China various times before and has more experience communicating with China. He states that “trying to fully decouple,…from China … is unrealistic…” Sun Chenghao, a Chinese scholar of international relations, says that Brinken will also be tough on China, but he will be more rational.
President Joe Biden and many other higher-ups in his new administration have implied that there is still room for U.S.-China cooperation.The Biden administration has signed executive orders which have declared that the U.S. will rejoin the Paris Agreement and World Health Organization, and it has also expressed its strong desire to restore the Iran nuclear deal. These plans will result in more interaction with China and should yield mutual benefits for both countries.
However, the working conditions for Chinese media in the U.S. will not go back to how they were during the Obama era. At that time, from the government to the rest of society, Chinese journalists were accepted as normal media workers. American officials, including then-vice-president Joe Biden, gave exclusive interviews to Chinese media. But in the past four years, the US political circle has encouraged a kind of ideological discrimination against Chinese media, which will be difficult to eliminate in a short time period.
In a recent Pew research survey, negative perception of China surpassed 70% among the Americans interviewed. Actually, when I was working in the U.S., I felt like I was in a friendlier environment than what the survey indicates. I believe the survey doesn’t tell the whole story. But it is undeniable that, to a certain degree, the government’s agenda and the large numbers of negative reports about China have resulted in a negative perception of China throughout American society.
I understand that there is an opinion held among some that America is now reflecting its previous policies toward China, thinking that the “embrace” policy hasn’t succeeded in changing China into a western-style country in terms of openness and democracy. So, the moderate approach taken by the Obama administration toward China has inevitably given way to a more aggressive approach. My company and many other Chinese media organizations have operated in the U.S. for many years, but suddenly, they were defined as “foreign agents” and “foreign missions”. Obviously, it is not that these organizations have changed their nature, but instead, the environment around them has changed.
Before moving to the U.S., I had worked in Africa and Latin America for a total of 7 years. In those countries, I was not treated differently for being a Chinese reporter. There, the standard by which media organizations and reporters are judged is based on the content of their reports. However, while in the U.S., even though I continued to report on the facts, I was ascribed many negative labels. Chinese reporters are generally seen as mere propaganda workers without independent thoughts.
Yes, these Chinese media organizations are still allowed to operate in America, but they are now stuck with these labels. This means when they ask permission for interviews or to contact sources, they can’t avoid being constantly regarded with suspicion, even being refused because people doubt these organizations’ character or motivation. At the same time, the western media in China has also expressed the similar frustration.
The West has always been suspicious of Chinese state-owned media organizations, while at the same time, China has very complex feelings about western media. On the one hand, Chinese people are very interested in foreign media reports on China, even though many of them are partly limited in China. On the other hand, China views western reports on China as being frequently tainted by prejudice and double standards. They believe that the West always exaggerates China’s problems in an arrogant manner. These contradictions are hard to be reconciled.
So, when it comes to improving the work conditions for foreign media workers, China should theoretically be more motivated and active in doing so. With its increasing economic status and international influence, China undoubtedly needs to allow the rest of the world to get to know it better, and the country hopes to gain insight into how the rest of the world sees it. Deep down, China desires more foreign journalists to come and work within its borders. In order to achieve this, I believe China will offer more favorable policies in the future, including loosening visa requirements.
However, this “media war” has shadowed China’s efforts to open itself up to the world. It has also hurt America’s reputation, as the nation is seen as going against its own democratic values. The “media war” confirms that the America’s “reciprocity” approach will not resolve any dispute, and could instead result in the situation spiraling out of control.
The U.S. defends that every one of its actions against China has a reason. Similarly, China has always emphasized that its restrictions on American media were compelled. Although the negotiation will be tough, I still believe that the “Media War” could cool down slightly after Biden takes office.The statement “we won’t attack unless we are attacked” is considered a political mantra in China. Just as the ambassador Cui Tiankai suggested in a recent interview, “if the US government is ready to reverse course, we are ready to look at it”. Specifically, he refers to the consulates closing and the expulsions of journalists on both sides.
The free exchange of media is emphasized far less than the economic, trade and diplomatic relationship between the two countries. However, at this critical junction in the development of U.S.-China relations, both countries definitely need to make sure their media is doing their job — — covering and spreading the important news in the field. Maintaining and extending the channels of communication between China and the U.S. might become the last line of defense to prevent the two countries from slipping into a Cold War.
As a correspondent who will continue wandering around the world for years to come, maybe I will one day be sent back to America. I hope that at that time, I’ll be able to talk calmly with my son about this China-U.S. media exchange crisis. I can tell him that my work is helping people of different cultures find common ground while still maintaining their differences.