"Today’s cap will limit the number of Chinese citizens who may work for these organizations in the US at any given time. These entities together currently employ about 160 Chinese citizens. The cap will bring this number to 100", the official told reporters.
The move affects five entities the US designated as foreign missions last month – 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.
"Chinese citizens working for other media organizations in the United States are not affected by the cap", the official added.
On 19 February, China announced that it would give three Wall Street Journal reporters five days to leave the country following a scandal that was provoked by the publication of an opinion piece about the coronavirus outbreak titled "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia". Beijing said that "sick man" is a racist phrase which was used in the West in the late 1800s to disparage China.
The US State Department condemned the expulsion, saying that "a free press reports facts and expresses opinions".
Last month, China revoked press credentials of three Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalists over what the Chinese Foreign Ministry called a "racially discriminatory" article.
The United States is leaving it up to Beijing to decide on the number of personnel that will remain working in each of the outlets.
"It's really going to be up to the Chinese Communist Party how they want to allot that cap across those five media organizations and how they want to allow it within those media organizations", another official said.
The US also plans to limit the duration of visas being granted to Chinese media employees.
"So one step that we’ll be announcing in the near future is establishing limits on the duration of stay for Chinese nationals coming to the United States on I visas, which are the category for representatives of foreign media", the official said.
The official called the upcoming regulation a matter of "reciprocity" and reminded that China was first to impose restrictions on foreign journalists’ duration of stay, with some being "as short as 30 days",
