For the first time in almost 50 years, this migration leaves the Australian media without any journalist working in China.
ABC added that Bertels, for example, was planning a farewell drink when police visited his apartment apartment and told him he was not allowed to leave the country, and called him the next day to inquire about a “national security case.” Will come. The broadcaster did not say what Bertels was being questioned about.
The two journalists then took refuge in the Australian Australian diplomatic missions in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively, while Canberra negotiated with Chinese officials and allowed them to leave the country. The standoff lasted five days before the travel ban was lifted and they managed to fly back to Sydney.
CNN Business has reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry about the case, but has not yet received a response.
Australian Foreign Minister Mary Penn said in a statement that the government had “provided consular assistance to two Australian journalists in China to help them return to Australia.”
“It’s very disappointing to say goodbye in those circumstances,” Brits told ABC on Tuesday.
“Returning to a country ruled by true law is a relief,” he added. “It was a whirlwind and not a particularly good experience.”
Speaking to CNN Business from Quarantine in Australia, Smith said the visit to his and Bertels’ apartment felt “very political”.
“It was only a matter of days,” he said of his time at the Australian Consulate in Shanghai.
Stress is high
Relations between Australia and China have soured in recent months after Canberra demanded an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus epidemic. Countries have since engaged in tight-knit trade sanctions.
For Australia’s media industry, Bertels and Smith’s departure is significant: ABC reports that there are no longer any Australian-based media outlets working in mainland China. This has not happened since 1972, when Canberra normalized relations with Beijing.
While there are still some Australian-Australian journalists working in China, all are employed by non-Australian Australian media companies.
Another news outlet, Australian Stirling, said on Tuesday that it had been advised by Canberra against deporting Chinese correspondent Will Glasgow. Glasgow is currently in Australia but was due to leave for Guangzhou last Sunday, he said on Twitter.
Weak relationships
Trevor Watson, who was an ABC correspondent in Beijing from 1988 to 1990, told CNN Business that there has been a significant change in the way the Chinese government views Australian Australian journalists.
While Watson was working in the country, covering the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, “there was a belief that ABC and Australian Australian journalists operated independently of their government.”
That has changed dramatically now, he said.
“They’re really lucky to be out there,” he said of Bertels and Smith. “Being a regular visitor to China since 1979, I think it will take a long time until I come back.”
Smith told CNN. Forcing China to leave is “really sad,” the business said.
He added, “Being a foreign correspondent in China has become harder and harder.” “People are getting really hard to talk to you. It’s becoming more dictatorial. I think it’s becoming dangerous and this is what it highlights.”
He said that prior to the incident, he had largely ruled out any potential threat to Chinese people in China.
“If they’re going to impose an exit ban on journalists, you don’t know what they’re going to do with a leading businessman or someone else in trouble.”
Journalists in China
And earlier this year, the U.S. administration of China’s state-run media by the Trump administration. Beijing effectively expelled about a dozen journalists from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal after limiting the number of Chinese nationals allowed to work in the offices.
Since then, Washington Washington has designated a growing number of Chinese state-run news organizations as “foreign missions” to the U.S. offices, allowing them to focus on their finances and employees. Beijing has a lot of U.S. in China.
“In the first half of 2020 alone, China revoked the press’s credentials and expelled a record 17 foreign journalists,” said the Club of Foreign Journalists.
The organization added, “At least 12 other foreign correspondents in China have received visas for punitive deductions, sometimes for a shorter period of 1 month instead of the standard-year visa.” “This comes in addition to the increasing harassment and surveillance of foreign journalists, including physical attacks and cyber attacks.”
– The report was contributed by Angus Watson, Steven Jiang and Chandler Thornton.
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