China grants renewed press cards to several Western journalists

BEIJING — Several Western journalists facing expulsion from China were given renewed press cards on Thursday by the Chinese government, allowing them to apply for visas and remain in the country.

The move appears to end a weeks-long standoff between the government and journalists that included a personal appeal by Vice President Joseph Biden to China’s president earlier this month.

Journalists from the New York Times, Bloomberg News and other organizations were facing the loss of their Chinese visas around the end of December, at which point they and their families would be forced to leave the country.

While most reporters at the Times and Bloomberg still do not have visas, receiving their press credentials, removes a main impediment for many of their visa applications. And staff at both organizations said they were optimistic it means their visas won’t be further held up by problems with the government.

All of Bloomberg’s foreign staff in China and some of New York Times’ have received their press cards, according to members of both organizations. According to Times journalists, who asked to speak anonymously for fear of government retaliation on their visas, at least one of them was traveling abroad when the press cards were issued on Thursday and could not pick it up.

“We have received all of our China press cards and continue to operate as usual," said Bloomberg spokeswoman Belinda Tan.”

The Washington Post, which has two correspondents in China, has received a visa so far for one. The other also received his press card on Thursday and was able to apply for a visa.

China has long denied or held up visas to retaliate for coverage critical of Communist Party officials, but U.S. reporters say the practice has grown more intense under Xi, who assumed the presidency in March. But this year, entire news organizations, rather than individual reporters, faced threats that they would be kicked out of the country, the journalists said.

The tensions appear to stem primarily from Chinese displeasure with articles about corruption among top Communist Party members and government officials. Reports about the massive wealth acquired by “princelings,” the family members of elite government figures, are a particular sore point.

The New York Times’ David Barboza won a Pulitzer Prize this year for his reporting on the topic; Bloomberg won a George Polk Award in February for a series about it, including one article that focused on the riches of the president’s family.

Peter Ford of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, said in a statement, “We hope that this development means that the New York Times reporters still awaiting their press cards will be given them soon, and that all the reporters whose visa procedure is still underway will indeed be issued with 2014 residence visas.”