WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2020) US authorities imposed limits on the number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for five Chinese state media entities in the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.
"The US government is today instituting a personnel cap on certain PRC-controlled state media entities in the United States - specifically, the five entities that were designated by the US State Department on February 18, 2020, as foreign missions of the People's Republic of China," Pompeo said. "This cap limits the number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for these organizations in the United States at any given time."
Pompeo indicated the decision came in response to China's restrictions on foreign journalists.
"For years, the government of the People's Republic of China has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation against American and other foreign journalists operating in China," he said.
Pompeo did not provide specific figures.
According to The Wall Street Journal, media companies will be forced to reduce their Chinese employees in the US to 100 in total, from 160.
Last month, the US designated as foreign missions Xinhua news Agency; China Global Television Network which falls under China Central Television, CCTV; China Radio International; China Daily Distribution Corporation; and Hai Tian Development USA. The move required them to notify the State Department of their current personnel and real property holdings in the US.
