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发帖数: 10330 | 1 Biden Faults China on Foreign Press Crackdown
By MARK LANDLER
Published: December 4, 2013
BEIJING — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took up the cause of foreign
journalists facing banishment from China for news coverage, publicly
criticizing the Chinese government’s pressure campaign and privately
raising the problems with President Xi Jinping.
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Mr. Biden also met on Thursday with correspondents based in China from
several news organizations mainly affected by the crackdown, most notably
The New York Times and Bloomberg News.
The Chinese government has held up renewing the visas of roughly two dozen
correspondents from The Times and Bloomberg after each published
investigative articles about the wealth of the families of top Chinese
leaders. Without new visas, the reporters will be forced to leave China, as
soon as within the next few weeks.
In a speech to American business people a day after he met with Mr. Xi, the
vice president said the United States had “profound disagreements” with
China’s “treatment of U.S. journalists.”
“Innovation thrives where people breathe freely, speak freely, are able to
challenge orthodoxy, where newspapers can report the truth without fear of
consequences,” Mr. Biden said.
The government’s actions, which appear aimed at the news organizations
rather than at individual reporters, threaten to shut down the China news
bureaus of The Times and Bloomberg, as well as hobble their business
operations in the country.
The English and Chinese-language websites of The Times have been blocked in
China since October 2012, after the paper published an extensive article on
the wealth and business dealings of the family of China’s former prime
minister, Wen Jiabao.
“Unfettered coverage of China is a crucial issue,” said Jill Abramson, the
executive editor of The Times. “At a time when China is such an important
and compelling story, the world needs the highest quality reporting on it.”
Bloomberg’s website was similarly blocked after it published an article in
2012 on the fortunes amassed by relatives of President Xi. Sales of
Bloomberg financial terminals dried up in China and the government issued no
further residency visas to Bloomberg reporters.
The pressure from Beijing played a role in Bloomberg’s subsequent decision
not to publish an investigation of the ties to Communist Party leaders of
Wang Jianlin, China’s wealthiest man, according to people at Bloomberg.
Bloomberg’s editor in chief, Matthew Winkler, has said the article was not
published because it was not ready.
A spokeswoman for Bloomberg in Singapore, Belina Tan, declined to comment on
the status of its reporters or on Mr. Biden’s intervention on their behalf.
Mr. Biden also kept up the public pressure on China over its declaration of
an air defense zone in the contested waters of the East China Sea. The zone,
which has drawn fierce protests from Japan and sowed fears of a clash
between the two countries, was a focus of the 5 and a half hours of meetings
on Wednesday between Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi.
“China’s recent and sudden announcement of the establishment of a new air
defense identification zone has, to state the obvious, caused significant
apprehension in the region,” Mr. Biden said. “I was very direct about our
firm position and our expectations in my conversation with Mr. Xi.”
Mr. Biden urged China to refrain from steps that would raise tensions, and
said the Chinese government needed to communicate better with its neighbors
to avoid accidents or miscalculation. |
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