<![CDATA[US will answer China's 'harassment' of American journalists with 'reciprocity', Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns]>

Top US diplomat Mike Pompeo on Thursday warned that Washington would respond with "reciprocity" if Beijing continued to restrict the work of US journalists in the mainland, days after Chinese officials vowed revenge over the slashing of the quota for Chinese state media journalists working in the US.

"Where the Chinese Communist Party has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment and intimidation on our independent and world-class journalists, we will respond to achieve reciprocity," Secretary of State Pompeo said at a media briefing.

"A free press helps expose corruption and protect the people from cover-ups, as well as help the world understand the CCP's thinking."

Censorship, he added, "can have deadly consequences. We urge the CCP to immediately uphold its commitment to uphold freedom of the press".

The US on Monday said that effective March 13, the cap on the number of US-based employees of China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corp, Xinhua News Agency and Hai Tian Development USA would be cut to 100 from 160 currently. The five outlets were last month redesignated by the State Department as foreign missions.

The quota cut came in response to China's decision last month to revoke the visas of three Wall Street Journal reporters after the US newspaper did not apologise for an opinion essay that referred to China as the "real sick man of Asia".

China reacted with fury over the use of the phrase, claiming it was derisory as it rekindled memories of an 18th and 19th century reference when it was dominated by foreign powers. The three expelled journalists played no role in the writing, editing or publication of the op-ed piece.

Signalling that the issuance of journalist visas could be the next frontier in the escalating US-China rivalry, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: "Now the US has kicked off the game, let's play."

Fang Hong, a spokeswoman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a statement to the South China Morning Post earlier this week that by imposing a personnel cap, "the US side is using the excuse of seeking reciprocity to keep down China's media outlets."

Singapore's Daren Tang (centre) has won the nomination to be the next director general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Photo: EPA-EFE alt=Singapore's Daren Tang (centre) has won the nomination to be the next director general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Photo: EPA-EFE

"This will not only gravely disrupt their normal operation and affect the work and life of Chinese journalists in the United States, but also hinder greater mutual understanding between the two peoples," she said.

On a separate front, Pompeo on Thursday also congratulated Singaporean national Daren Tang for winning the nomination to be the next director general of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Among Tang's competitors was China's candidate Wang Binying, WIPO's deputy secretary general. The race in recent weeks had been characterised as a proxy diplomatic contest between the two superpowers.

Tang, a career bureaucrat who currently heads the city state's domestic intellectual property law oversight body, will be appointed to the position after his nomination is endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly " a step seen as a formality.

Pompeo said Tang was a "thought leader on intellectual property issues and a vocal advocate for transparency and institutional integrity". He referred to Tang's victory as an "another event [in which] our team here worked hard to ensure a good result for the American people".

Tang's nomination "wasn't about defeating China", he said. "This was about the United States selecting the most capable candidate to deliver on intellectual property rights."

"We all know the history of China, and property rights, and intellectual property rights, right," Pompeo added. "They've stolen hundreds of millions of dollars of American intellectual property, harming citizens from Kansas to Iowa to Tennessee and Texas, destroying jobs here in the United States of America."

In Singapore, officials " wary of being seen as US proxies " have been quick to highlight that it was the republic's own lobbying efforts in the international arena that won Tang the nomination on Wednesday.

When confirmed, Tang will become the first Singaporean to lead a major United Nations body. On Facebook, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan congratulated officials who were part of a "whole-of-government elections campaign team".

Also on Facebook, one of the country's top envoys wrote that it was "wrong and mischievous" for Tang's victory to be characterised as a win for the US.

"Daren is Singapore's candidate. He is not USA's candidate. We are of course grateful to the US for its support but we are not a US proxy and not part of the US confrontation against China," ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh wrote on the social media platform in response to a comment on whether the city state was taking sides in the US-China rivalry.

Singapore is long reputed for its adroit diplomatic policy in which it simultaneously maintains strong strategic ties with the US while also having China as its top trading partner.

Additional reporting by Mark Magnier

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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