China has announced the revocation of press credentials from American journalists at multiple publications, the New York Times among them.
The surprise announcement also sees the removal of U.S. journalists from the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. Below, read a portion of the statement shared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China on Tuesday:
China hereby announces the following measures, effective immediately:
The statement goes on to explain that these measures are "entirely necessary" and represent reciprocal countermeasures to actions from the U.S. including what's described as an "unreasonable oppression" of Chinese publications.
"What the US has done is exclusively targeting Chinese media organizations, and hence driven by a Cold War mentality and ideological bias," a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said. "It has seriously tarnished the reputation and image of Chinese media organizations, seriously affected their normal operation in the US, and seriously disrupted people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries. It has therefore exposed the hypocrisy of the self-styled advocate of press freedom."
Moving forward, China is urging the U.S. to swiftly change its course and "undo the damage." Read the full statement here.
Also on Tuesday, Trump—who had received criticism for describe COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus"—defended his wording.
"China, uh, was putting out information, which was false, that our military gave this to them," he said. "That was false. And rather than having an argument, I said I have to call it where it came from. It did come from China. So I think it’s a very accurate term. But no, I didn't appreciate the fact that China said our military gave it to them—our military did not give it to anybody."
