China and India Eject Almost All of Each Others’ Journalists

The Chinese government announced on Wednesday that it has taken “appropriate” measures in retaliation for India refusing to grant visas to Chinese reporters. With these actions, China and India have ejected almost all of each other’s journalists.

“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,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning complained to reporters.

“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.

Mao added that Beijing was willing to make accommodations for Indian journalists who have been living and working in China for over ten years, but only if “the Indian side can meet China halfway and provide the same facilitation and assistance to Chinese journalists in India.”

Mao did not reply to questions about how many Indian reporters remain in China. Instead, she insisted China wishes to maintain relations with India “based on the principles of mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit.”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that another Chinese Foreign Ministry official met with three Indian journalists visiting China on Tuesday, so there are at least that many Indian reporters remaining in China, although the SCMP did not say how long they were planning to stay.

The exchange of journalistic hostilities began in early May when India denied visa renewals for journalists from China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television (CCTV). They were the last two operatives from Chinese state media living in India.

India, meanwhile, had only four reporters left in China at the beginning of 2023. Two of them have been denied visa renewals in retaliation for India ejecting the Xinhua and CCTV reporters. A third was denied accreditation as a journalist by the Chinese government but has not yet been asked to leave the country.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which broke the news about the journalist visa denials on Tuesday, saw these actions as the latest grim milestones in an India-China relationship that has “deteriorated” in various ways since a deadly hand-to-hand battle between Indian and Chinese forces along their contested border in the summer of 2020.

The border fight – during which dozens of Indian and Chinese troops were killed with rocks, clubs, sticks, and other improvised melee weapons because both sides studiously avoided escalation through gunfire – seemed like a bizarre but relatively isolated incident to outside observers at the time, but in retrospect it clearly marked the beginning of a sharp increase in tensions between the rival nations, which had been making an effort to improve their relations through vehicles like the BRICS economic alliance.

“Journalist accreditation has risen in prominence as a geopolitical issue in recent years, as governments increasingly regard members of the press as extensions of their home countries’ foreign policies,” the WSJ noted, recalling that China and the United States have also expelled or refused to accredit a number of each others’ reporters, and at one point there were no Australian reporters left in China.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs objected to the interpretation that India is banning all Chinese journalists, pointing out that reporters from non-state media operations remain in the country. A spokesman from the ministry declined to address the WSJ’s questions about a Chinese state TV reporter who was suddenly expelled without explanation in December.

Other Indian officials and commentators suggested relations will only improve if China vacates Indian border territory it has illegally occupied; the Chinese forces’ illegal presence caused the fateful melee when Indian forces pushed back in June 2020.

China’s state-run Global Times naturally blamed the dispute over reporters entirely on India in a Wednesday editorial, repeating the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s talking points about India’s ostensibly unfair “discrimination” against Chinese reporters and accusing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of hyping animosity toward China for his own political benefit.

“Modi is soon to visit the U.S. and may be trying to use the strained relationship with China as leverage to reap benefits from the U.S. And if India does not receive any concrete benefits, it may change its stance again,” Shanghai Institute for International Studies research fellow Zhao Gancheng speculated.

“Observers noted that Western media is also trying to use the friction to create deeper conflicts between China and India, as they fear the joining hands of the two most populous countries in the world,” the Global Times added.