China Angry as U.S. Paper Calls It ‘Sick Man of Asia’

Date: 19 February 2020 - 22:06

News ID: ۷۶۳۳۷

BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday said it has revoked the press credentials of three reporters for the U.S. newspaper Wall Street Journal over a headline for an opinion column deemed racist by the government.
The expulsions come after the Trump administration on Tuesday designated five state-run Chinese news outlets that operate in the United States as "foreign missions,” requiring them to register their properties and employees in the U.S. China said it reserves the right to respond to what it called a mistaken policy.
The headline on the Journal’s opinion column referred to the current virus outbreak in China and called the country the "Real Sick Man of Asia.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the Feb. 3 op-ed by Bard College Professor Walter Russel Mead "smears the efforts of the Chinese government and people on fighting (the virus) epidemic.”
"The editors used such a racially discriminatory title, triggering indignation and condemnation among the Chinese people and the international community,” he said in a statement.
He said the expulsions came after the Journal refused demands to "make an official apology and hold the persons involved accountable.”
The term "sick man of Asia” was originally used to describe China more than a century ago when it suffered internal divisions and was forced to accept unequal treaties with Western powers.
President and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly stated that China will make no concessions when it comes to national territory, sovereignty or dignity.
In one recent case, China cut commercial ties with the U.S. National Basketball Association after an official with the Houston Rockets team tweeted support for Hong Kong protesters whom China has derided as separatists.
The Journal identified the three journalists as Deputy Bureau Chief Josh Chin, reporter Chao Deng — both U.S. citizens — and reporter Philip Wen, an Australian. They have been given five days to leave the country, according to Jonathan Cheng, the Journal’s China bureau chief.
Following the publication of Mead’s opinion column this month, a foreign ministry spokeswoman lashed out at him, saying he should be "ashamed of your words, your arrogance, your prejudice and your ignorance.”
In an opinion piece on its website, the Global Times newspaper published by the ruling Communist Party said the expulsions and Washington’s actions against the five Chinese media outlets were "not entirely coincidental” and implied a strong connection between the two.
"Taken together, they reflect that the ideological clash between the U.S. and China is intensifying,” the newspaper said.