China threatens retaliation for US curbs on 'propaganda' outlets
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ISLAMABAD-China threatened Tuesday to retaliate against new US restrictions on Chinese state media, escalating tensions between the two superpowers as they crack down on each other's news outlets.
China has already expelled more than a dozen American journalists as part of the row.
On Tuesday Beijing decried the latest US move as "bare-faced political suppression of Chinese media" that "further exposes the hypocrisy of the so-called freedom of speech and press which the US likes to flaunt".
We strongly urge the US to reject this Cold War mindset and ideological bias... otherwise China will have no choice but to make an appropriate response," said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a routine briefing.
All nine Chinese state-run news organisations will be required to report details of their US-based staff and real estate transactions to the State Department. Their news reporting will not be restricted, officials said.
He declined to say if the four organisations would be asked to reduce their US-based staff, which was required of the five that were earlier designated.(AFP/APP)
