I was surprised last week when I went to the busy, no-nonsense Public Security Bureau (PSB) office in Beijing to extend my journalist visa.
First, I had to pick up my new press card from the foreign ministry for 2014 and then head to the police to get my visa renewed – that’s the normal sequence.
The young man with broken English across the counter was courteous to a fault but asked me to go back to the foreign ministry for a letter of recommendation for the visa.
When told that the new press card in my hand should serve as the “recommendation” – if one is required in the first place – he said it was a new rule, starting from that “very day”.
Other foreign journalists who came after me were dispatched back to the foreign ministry as well.
The so-called letter of recommendation wasn’t asked for last year and this year too a number of journalists I knew had got their journalist visas extended without having to get this precious, glowing letter of recommendation.
It made even less sense when foreign ministry officials, again courteous to a fault, said they had heard about this new visa provision from the PSB but had no clue what exactly the recommendation letter entailed.
“Our seniors are negotiating with PSB officers about it. We will call you,” said a foreign ministry official.
Frankly, the new rule didn’t make any sense especially because it was introduced in the middle of the season for journalists’ visa renewal and many had already received visas without this new fuss.
But I soon realised that the fuss was more serious and sinister for 24 journalists from the New York Times (NYT) and Bloomberg: Their visas had not been approved at all and, with little more than two weeks remaining, they were quite clearly being threatened with expulsion from China.
China has a reputation, and with very good reason, of being strict with foreign journalists; occasionally, the Communist Party of China’s wrath also falls on their own rare, erring journalists.
Last year, Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chen was expelled, the first such case in 13 years. In between, many have been threatened, beaten up while on their reporting duties.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC), which is not quite looked at with adoring eyes and so not even recognised by the government, has listed several times the cases of violence against journalists.
But the threat of expulsion of 24 journalists – effectively both NYT and Bloomberg will cease to exist in China if it happens – has taken the sense of intense aversion for sharp, critical journalism in China to a dangerous, new height.
No reason has been offered for withholding the stamps of approval but a simple two-plus-two-is-four-calculation throws up a not-too absurd motive – both media groups have done investigative stories linking the families of first former Premier Wen Jiabao and then President Xi Jinping to very, very healthy bank accounts and wealth in billions of USD.
Soon after the stories were published, their websites were – rather shockingly, no? – blocked. They still are.
Both followed up with more stories on the sensitive topic linking family members of China’s top politicians making a lot of money, hinting that they did so using smooth connections that reached the top.
Anti-corruption has been one of the new government’s often proudly repeated mantra. President Xi has mentioned targeting both the “flies” and “tigers” of corruption.
But, clearly, if members of the top leadership, or their families, are hinted to be corrupt, it is a matter too sensitive for the CPC. Especially, when the image of the leaders, right from their perfectly combed hair and crease-less dark suits, is projected to be squeaky clean.
Sadly, as of now the two American media groups seem to be part of collateral damage
As for me, my application for visa extension was accepted by the PSB after the ministry submitted the letter after two days. A slip of yellow paper says I will get my passport back in a couple of weeks. But just for the record, I think all members of the CPC, each one among the 85 million members — the “flies”, the “tigers” and if there is any other category of allegorical animal – is incorruptible.