The US on Sunday warned China against interfering with American journalists working in Hong Kong in an escalating row between the two countries over press
The US on Sunday warned China against interfering with American journalists working in Hong Kong, in an escalating row between the two countries over press freedom and other issues.
The two sides have expelled each other’s reporters in tit-for-tat moves over recent months as they trade barbs over the coronavirus pandemic and US President Donald Trump threatens to impose fresh trade tariffs.
« It has recently come to my attention that the Chinese government has threatened to interfere with the work of American journalists in Hong Kong, » US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
« These journalists are members of a free press, not propaganda cadres. »
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Pompeo did not explicitly criticise China, nor did he give specific examples of what he was referring to, but the statement is the latest US response after Beijing expelled more than a dozen American reporters.
