Headline

China, US To Ease Restrictions On Each Other’s Journalists

Published

4 years ago

November 18, 2021

China and the U.S. have agreed to ease restrictions on each other’s journalists amid a slight relaxation of tensions between the two sides.

The official China Daily newspaper on Wednesday said the agreement was reached ahead of Tuesday’s virtual summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden.

The agreement represents a degree of progress on an issue that has long aggravated relations, but details remain to be ironed out. COVID-19 travel restrictions and long-standing obstacles faced by foreign media within China are also factors standing in the way of a major breakthrough in media relations.

Under the agreement, the U.S. will issue one-year multiple-entry visas to Chinese journalists and will immediately initiate a process to address “duration of status” issues, China Daily said.

China will reciprocate by granting equal treatment to U.S. journalists once the U.S. policies take effect, and both sides will issue media visas for new applicants “based on relevant laws and regulations,” the report said.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian gave no information on a timeline for implementation, but called the agreement a “hard-won achievement that is in the interest of both sides and should be cherished.”

“We hope that the U.S. will keep its promise to put the relevant measures and policies in place as soon as possible and work with China to create favorable conditions for both (nations’) media to continue to work and live in each other’s countries,” Zhao said at a daily briefing.

In a statement to The Associated Press late Tuesday, the State Department said China had committed to issuing visas for a group of U.S. reporters “provided they are eligible under all applicable laws and regulations.”

“We will also continue issuing visas to (Chinese) journalists who are otherwise eligible for the visa under U.S. law,” the statement said.

China also committed to increase the length for which U.S. journalist visas are valid from the current 90 days to one year.

“On a reciprocal basis, we are committing to increase validity of U.S. visas issued to PRC journalists to one year as well,” the State Department statement said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

Not mentioned in either statement were press conditions in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong, where both local and international media have come under increasing pressure.

The Economist said last week that Hong Kong refused a visa renewal for its correspondent Sue-Lin Wong. Authorities have not explained the rejection.

Limits on journalists have fueled tensions between the two countries for more than a year after the U.S. cut 20 visas issued to Chinese state media journalists and required those remaining to register as foreign agents, among other changes.

China responded by expelling journalists working for U.S. outlets and severely restricting conditions for those continuing to work in the country.

The new agreement “was the result of more than a year of difficult negotiations over the treatment of media outlets in both countries,” China Daily said.

“It is hoped that more good news is ahead for the two countries’ media outlets through further China-U.S. cooperation,” the newspaper added.

The State Department said it has “remained in close consultation with the affected outlets, as well as other outlets facing personnel shortages due to PRC government policy decisions, and we are gratified their correspondents will be able to return to the PRC to continue their important work. We welcome this progress but see it simply as initial steps.”

The State Department also said it would continue to work toward expanded access and better conditions for U.S. and foreign media in China, where they face considerable obstacles ranging from questioning by police, harassment preventing them from doing their work, personal threats and lawsuits brought by people they interview.

“We will continue to advocate for media freedom as a reflection of our democratic values,” the State Department told the AP.

Asked about Wong’s case, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the issuing of visas is at the “autonomy and the discretion of any government.”

Lam added that the authorities do not comment on individual cases but will continue to facilitate the operation of overseas media based in Hong Kong “in a legitimate manner” according to the city’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law.

The city’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club said it was “deeply concerned” over the denial of Wong’s employment visa.

“We again call on the government to provide concrete assurances that applications for employment visas and visa extensions will be handled in a timely manner with clearly-stated requirements and procedures, and that the visa process for journalists will not be politicized or weaponized,” the club said in a statement last week.

Wong is the latest in a string of journalists in Hong Kong to be denied visas.

In 2018, Hong Kong authorities refused to renew the work visa of Financial Times senior editor Victor Mallet after he chaired a lunchtime talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club with the leader of a now-banned pro-Hong Kong independence party. Authorities did not say why Mallet’s application was rejected.

In 2020, Hong Kong did not renew a work visa for Chris Buckley, a New York Times reporter who had been working in Hong Kong after being expelled from China, as well as for Irish journalist Aaron Mc Nicholas, who was then an incoming editor for the independent media outlet Hong Kong Free Press.

(AP)

Headline

Russian Strikes Kill Six In Ukraine

Published

10 hours ago

July 18, 2025

Editor

Russian drone and bomb fire killed at least six people across Ukraine’s east and south, local authorities said Friday, as Russia resists US President Donald Trump’s call to halt its invasion.

Moscow has escalated long-range aerial attacks on Ukraine’s towns and cities as well as frontline assaults and shelling over the past weeks, defying Trump’s warning it could face massive new sanctions if no peace deal is struck.

The latest strikes killed at least three people in the Dnipropetrovsk region — an important industrial mining territory under increasing pressure from Russia’s attacks.

“Administrative buildings, a shop and private houses have been damaged,” Governor Sergiy Lysak said on Telegram after a morning drone attack caused a fire to break out in the region’s Kamyanske district, where two were killed.

A 52-year-old man was killed in another drone attack elsewhere in the region.

And in the Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — all of which are partially occupied by Russian forces — attacks killed another three people.

Ukraine said Russia fired 35 long-range drones overnight — a relatively low number compared to the several hundred Moscow is capable of launching.

Moscow said it shot down 73 Ukrainian drones over its territory, including 10 it said were heading for the capital, Moscow.

AFP

Headline

Georgia Arrests Two Over Attempt To Sell Weapons-grade Uranium

Published

1 day ago

July 17, 2025

Editor

Georgia has arrested two men for allegedly attempting to illegally sell weapons-grade uranium, officials in the Caucasus nation said on Thursday.

Counter-intelligence and special operations units detained a Georgian and a foreign national while they were allegedly trying to sell radioactive uranium that “could be used to manufacture explosive devices or carry out terrorist attacks”, the security services said.

The two men were seeking $3.0 million for the uranium when they were arrested in the Black Sea port city of Batumi, the services said.

Headline

Israeli Strike On Gaza’s Only Catholic Church Kills Two

Published

1 day ago

July 17, 2025

Editor

...I’m deeply saddened – Pope Leo XIV

An Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church killed two people on Thursday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it “never targets” religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians.

Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, which came as Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory killed at least 20 people.

“With deep sorrow the Latin Patriarchate can now confirm that two persons were killed as a result of an apparent strike by the Israeli army that hit the Holy Family Compound this morning.

“We pray for the rest of their souls and for the end of this barbaric war. Nothing can justify the targeting of innocent civilians,” it said in a statement.

Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said “two citizens from the Christian community” were killed in an Israeli strike on the church in Gaza City, with which the late Pope Francis kept regular contact through the war.

AFP photographs showed the wounded being treated in a tented area at Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, with parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli with a bandage around his lower leg.

Christian Palestinian mourners take the body of a loved one for burial from the city’s Arab Ahli, also known as Baptist Hospital, following an earlier Israeli strike on the Holy Family Church, in Gaza City on July 17, 2025. An Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church killed two people on July 17, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, as Israel said it “never targets” religious sites and regretted any harm to civilians. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

The patriarchate, which has jurisdiction for Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus, condemned the strike and said it “destroyed large parts of the complex”.

“Targeting a holy site currently sheltering approximately 600 displaced persons, the majority of whom are children and 54 with special needs, is a flagrant violation of human dignity and a blatant violation of the sanctity of life and the sanctity of religious sitses, which are supposed to provide a safe haven in times of war,” it said.

Israel expressed “deep sorrow” over the damage and civilian casualties, adding that the military was investigating.

“Israel never targets churches or religious sites and regrets any harm to a religious site or to uninvolved civilians,” the foreign ministry said on X.

– ‘Serious act’ –

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said attacks on civilians in Gaza were “unacceptable” while her Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called the church attack “a serious act against a Christian place of worship”.

Out of the Gaza Strip’s population of more than two million, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.

Since the early days of the war which erupted in October 2023, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at the Holy Family Compound in Gaza City, where some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war and in his final Easter message, a day before his death on April 21, he condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” in the Palestinian territory.

– ‘Totally unacceptable’ –

Monsignor Pascal Gollnisch, the head of Catholic charity l’Oeuvre d’Orient, told AFP the raid was “totally unacceptable”.

“It is a place of worship. It is a Catholic church known for its peaceful attitude, for being a peacemaker. These are people who are at the service of the population,” he said.

“There was no strategic objective, there were no jihadists in this church. There were families, there were civilians. This is totally unacceptable and we condemn in the strongest possible terms this attitude on the part of Israel.”

More than 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s population, displacing most residents at least once and triggering severe shortages of food and other essentials.

The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.

AFP