TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Trump administration has revoked the visa of a Chinese state media worker based in the US after China expelled a New York Times reporter in February.

Chinese officials said they targeted Vivian Wang, a China correspondent for the New York Times since 2020, after Taiwan President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was interviewed via videoconference by the NYT at the DealBook Summit in December, according to the NYT. Wang was not involved with the event.

Chinese officials criticized Wang’s coverage, which focused on everyday people in China and addressed sensitive topics such as censorship, Beijing’s handling of COVID-19, and the country’s expanding security apparatus.

In response, the US decided on Friday to remove a Chinese state media worker employed at Xinhua, an official Chinese government mouthpiece.

“The Chinese government’s decision to expel Vivian Wang is wrong,” Joseph Kahn, executive editor of the NYT, said. “Her expulsion will make it even harder for our global audience to get accurate, independent and in-depth reporting about the world’s second-largest economy at a critical time.”

Kahn praised Wang as “one of the most respected journalists covering China today” and said that her removal “follows a campaign of harassment and threats directed at her over professional, accurate and evenhanded reporting,” per the NYT.

He noted that the number of US correspondents allowed to work in China “has now fallen to an alarmingly low level, at a time when the need for people everywhere to understand China is greater than ever.”

The NYT said one reason for the decline is the issuance of fewer long-term visas to US journalists. “China’s foreign ministry is now more likely to grant short-term visas to reporters, which may not be renewed if Beijing officials dislike their coverage,” it said.

After Wang was removed, the NYT said it had negotiated with the Chinese government for her return. Chinese officials agreed to approve a seven-day visa for Wang and a few other NYT journalists to cover Trump’s visit to Beijing earlier this month.

However, Beijing refused to allow her to remain a correspondent in the country. She was able to return to China this week on a short-term non-journalist visa to pack up her belongings in Beijing.

Currently, around 24 foreign journalists working for US media outlets are based in China, according to the NYT. Meanwhile, approximately 100 Chinese state media workers are in the US, compared with 160 in 2020.

Kahn urged Beijing and Washington to work toward facilitating a better flow of information between the countries. He added that the NYT remains “committed to covering the country fully and fairly, with correspondents based in China and around the region.”

In September 2018, the US Justice Department ordered the American offices of Xinhua and China Global Television Network to register as foreign agents. In 2020, the Trump administration said that five Chinese state-run media outlets in the US, including Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily, and People’s Daily, would be treated as foreign government offices.

US officials also limited these organizations to having no more than 100 state media workers working in the country.