WASHINGTON — The United States has canceled the visa of a Chinese journalist employed by state news agency Xinhua, marking a direct response to Beijing’s recent expulsion of a correspondent from The New York Times.
Sources familiar with the situation confirmed the visa cancellation, speaking anonymously due to privacy restrictions surrounding visa matters. A State Department official also verified plans to revoke the journalist’s credentials.
This retaliatory action follows Beijing’s removal of Vivian Wang, who has served as a China correspondent for The New York Times. Her expulsion reportedly stems from the Taiwanese leader’s participation in a DealBook event, despite Wang having no involvement in the interview. Such direct U.S. government retaliation against China’s journalist expulsions is uncommon.
The New York Times, which initially broke news of the reciprocal visa revocation, stated the publication does not request governments to cancel media credentials or interfere with journalistic work. On Friday, the newspaper released a statement demanding Wang’s reinstatement and calling on both nations to “reverse this deterioration in journalist access.”
“The Chinese government’s decision to expel Vivian Wang is wrong,” Joseph Kahn, the paper’s executive editor, said in a statement published on the Times’ corporate website. “Her expulsion will make it even harder for our global audience to get accurate, independent and in-depth reporting about the world’s second largest economy at a critical time.”
The Chinese embassy in Washington has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Wang’s departure occurs when American media presence in China has already diminished significantly following previous credential disputes, leaving many U.S. news organizations operating with minimal staff in their Chinese bureaus.
“The number of correspondents from American media outlets allowed to work in China has now fallen to an alarmingly low level, at a time when the need for people everywhere to understand China is greater than ever,” Kahn wrote.
Beijing initiated Wang’s expulsion after The New York Times’ DealBook Summit 2025 included a recorded interview with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, conducted by host Andrew Ross Sorkin. During the interview, Sorkin referred to Taiwan as a country, while Lai discussed Beijing’s aggressive actions in the Taiwan Strait and pledged that “Taiwan will do everything necessary to protect itself.”
China maintains territorial claims over Taiwan, which separated from the mainland in 1949 following Mao Zedong’s communist victory in the civil war. During recent discussions with President Donald Trump in Beijing in mid-May, Chinese President Xi Jinping cautioned that China and the U.S. could “collide or even clash” over Taiwan without proper handling of the issue.
The action against The New York Times has raised concerns among other Western media outlets that might interview Lai, potentially risking their ability to report from China in exchange for giving the self-governed island a platform.
China requires all foreign journalists to obtain accreditation from the country’s foreign ministry for reporting activities, and Beijing has consistently used accreditation and visa policies to remove or exclude foreign journalists whose coverage has displeased Chinese leadership or to express dissatisfaction with coverage deemed unfavorable or hostile.
In 2020, Chinese authorities expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents following the financial newspaper’s publication of an opinion piece titled “China is the Real Sick Man of Asia” after the COVID-19 pandemic emerged.
As relations between the U.S. and China deteriorated, the U.S. State Department designated several major Chinese news organizations as “foreign missions” in 2020. Xinhua, for instance, operates under direction from the ruling Chinese Communist Party to function as the party’s and government’s official voice, including distributing their authorized news content.
In response, Beijing severely restricted visa availability for journalists employed by U.S. media organizations.
During the first half of 2020, at least 18 foreign journalists from The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal faced expulsion, according to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China. Many others received abbreviated visas lasting between one and three months, the organization’s annual survey indicated.
The two nations subsequently negotiated a limited agreement permitting U.S. media to deploy a small number of correspondents to mainland China. Wang was among those journalists.
