FM calls accusations of meddling 'absurd'

The Foreign Ministry's representative in Hong Kong stressed on Wednesday it resolutely opposes any attempt by external forces to abuse press freedom as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs.

The statement came after the Foreign Correspondents' Club — a Hong Kong-based association of foreign journalists — commented on the central government's latest countermeasures against restrictions that the United States has placed on Chinese media agencies operating in the US.

China said on Wednesday journalists of three US newspapers will not be allowed to continue working in the country, including the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, in view of US oppression of Chinese media agencies.

The journalists with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, whose press credentials are due to expire before the end of this year, have been told to report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within four days starting from Wednesday, and to return their press cards within 10 days.

The ministry also required China-based branches of the Voice of America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Time Magazine to provide written information about their employees, finances, operations and real estate in China.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club responded, alleging that China is interfering in the HKSAR's affairs and calling the move a "serious erosion of 'one country, two systems' ''.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region described the FCC's allegations as "patently absurd".

It said China's measures are "completely legitimate and reasonable" as they fall within the central government's purview of foreign affairs in accordance with "one country, two systems" and the Basic Law of the HKSAR.

The spokesperson said China had to take the measures in response to US oppression of Chinese media organizations.

In December 2018, the US ordered certain Chinese media organizations in the US to register as "foreign agents"; in February this year, it designated five Chinese media entities in the US as "foreign missions" and imposed a cap on the number of their employees — in effect, expelling Chinese journalists from the US, according to another statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.

The spokesperson of the Commissioner's Office advised the FCC to urge the US to stop its political oppression of and arbitrary restrictions on Chinese media agencies.

Hong Kong civic leaders also denounced the FCC's unfounded accusations. Stanley Ng Chau-pei, a Hong Kong deputy to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, said the FCC's response has nothing to do with press freedom. "It just clearly demonstrated its stance — politics comes first," he said.

Ng said the FCC's comments were also in line with its tolerance of local activists advocating Hong Kong independence. Andy Chan Ho-tin, a founder of the now-banned Hong Kong National Party, spoke at the FCC in August 2018 after being invited to deliver a speech there.

Veteran sociologist Lau Siu-kai, who's also vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, accused the FCC of having double standards. "The US had expelled Chinese media representatives from its territory in the past. Why didn't anyone say the US was infringing press freedom?" he asked.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Hong Kong government said it has always adopted a pragmatic and open policy on the employment of professionals in Hong Kong, including journalists, allowing those with special skills, knowledge or experience of value not readily available locally to work in the city.