China has again struck back at the U.S. - this time ordering six U.S. news media companies to reveal information about their operations in China.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced China's latest retaliation Monday. Hit by the government order were the China-based bureaus of ABC, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Minnesota Public Radio, the Bureau of National Affairs and Feature Story News.
These bureaus were ordered to declare information about their staff, finances, operations and real estate in China within seven days.
The Bureau of National Affairs provides legal, regulatory and business information. Founded in 1992, Feature Story News is an international broadcast news agency based in Washington D.C.
The ministry said actions by the Trump administration compelled China to take the step "in response to the unreasonable oppression the Chinese media organizations experience in the United States."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the U.S. operations of six more China-based news media companies as foreign missions. Pompeo said this was aimed at countering communist propaganda.
"They are also substantially owned, or effectively controlled by a foreign government," he said.
The designation requires these Chinese news media companies to inform the U.S. State Department of their personnel rosters and real-estate holdings. The group of six consists of Yicai Global, Jiefang Daily, the Xinmin Evening News, Social Sciences in China Press, the Beijing Review and the Economic Daily.
The six are the third group of Chinese news media companies identified as foreign missions this year. China has retaliated each time.
In June, Washington designated four Chinese news media outlets as foreign embassies and five in February. Fifteen Chinese media outlets have been designated foreign missions this year.
The Trump administration in December 2018 ordered certain Chinese news organizations in the U.S. to register as "foreign agents."
In February it designated five as "foreign missions" and limited the number of the number of their employees working in the U.S.
China condemned the move. It said it reserved the right to retaliate. In response to the February attacks, China retaliated in March by demanding the China-based bureaus of Voice of America, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Time declare in written form information about their staff, finance, operations and real estate holdings in China.
