Photo: VCG

What the US claims about reciprocity in capping the number of Chinese media employees in the US is actually discrimination, prejudice and rejection of Chinese media, and China will play along since the US broke the rules of the game in the first place, China's Foreign Ministry said at Tuesday's press briefing.

The US uses its ideological prejudice and Cold War zero-sum game mentality against Chinese media. We reject its wrong decision and urge the US to immediately stop its ill-advised measures, said Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. 

Zhao questioned the US media and officials' claims that the restrictions on Chinese media employees constitute "upholding 'reciprocity' in US-China relations."  

Zhao said China has never restricted the number of US media employees in China, but the US has used means including visa denial to restrict Chinese journalists visiting the US. At least 21 Chinese journalists have been denied visas since last year. 

The US has repeated its mistakes. Restricting the number of Chinese media employees in the US actually means expulsing 60 Chinese journalists, Zhao said. 

There are 29 US media agencies in China but only nine Chinese agencies in the US.

American journalists in China can go in and out of China several times during the visa validity period, but the US only issues single-entry visas to Chinese journalists, and visa fees are as high as $354 per visit, which is more than twice the fee charged by the Chinese side, Zhao said, asking, "Is this reciprocity?"

Echoing Zhao's response, another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying tweeted earlier Tuesday that "Reciprocity? 29 US media agencies in China VS 9 Chinese ones in US. Multiple-entry to China VS single-entry to the US. 21 Chinese journalists denied visas since last year. Now the US kicked off the game. Let's play." 

US State Department officials said Monday that a personnel cap is being imposed on four Chinese media companies - China Radio International,  China Daily Distribution Corporation, China Global Television Network and Xinhua - forcing them to limit the number of their Chinese employees in the US to 100 in total, from 160.

Global Times