BEIJING — Vice President Joe Biden complained to Chinese leaders about threats to expel U.S. journalists as part of a government crackdown on foreign media organizations, officials said Thursday.
Biden met privately Thursday with a group of foreign journalists who are being threatened with expulsion. Reporters were told that he brought up the issue at all three of his meetings with China’s top leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
Some of the affected journalists expressed hope that with Biden lending his weight to their cause, the chances that their visas would be granted at the last minute would increase.
Nine journalists from The New York Times have not yet received visas to remain in China past Dec. 31, the newspaper’s executive editor said. At least 14 at Bloomberg News are similarly affected, according to a journalist briefed on the Biden meeting. Other media organizations represented at the meeting with Biden included The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and Reuters news agency, as well as the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China.
Biden reportedly registered his concerns directly with Xi during a wide-ranging bilateral meeting a day earlier, and he publicly denounced the practice of intimidating journalists in a speech to U.S. business executives Thursday morning in Beijing.
“Innovation thrives where people breathe freely, speak freely, are able to challenge orthodoxy, where newspapers can report the truth without fear of consequences,” Biden said.
