Beijing, June 1 (EFE).- China on Monday accused The New York Times of serving as a platform for what it called Taiwan’s “separatist rhetoric” and defended its decision to revoke the credentials of one of the newspaper’s correspondents, in its first public response to the controversy surrounding the journalist’s departure from the country.
Speaking at a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian accused the newspaper of openly referring to “China’s Taiwan region” as “a country,” which, he said, “sends an extremely wrong signal to separatist forces.”
He urged the outlet to “correct its mistakes.”
Addressing the case of correspondent Vivian Wang, Lin said the journalist had allegedly committed insurance-related fraud while working in China, which, according to him, violated regulations governing foreign news organizations and prompted authorities to cancel her press credentials.
The spokesperson also alleged that the US was exerting political pressure on journalists from China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency working legally in the country under the pretext of “professional ethics” concerns.
