China expels New York Times correspondent Vivian Wang after critical reporting
China expelled Vivian Wang after blaming her for a Taiwan interview she did not join, stoking fears about shrinking foreign access in Beijing.
China expelled New York Times correspondent Vivian Wang in February after revoking her residence permit, ending nearly five years of reporting from the country and removing a journalist who had covered censorship, COVID-19 policy, the expansion of the security apparatus and the coronavirus pandemic. Beijing tied the move to a December 2025 DealBook Summit interview with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, but Wang had no role in that interview.
The New York Times Company condemned the decision. Executive editor Joseph Kahn said, "The Chinese government's decision to expel Vivian Wang is wrong." Her removal would make it harder for the newspaper's global audience to get accurate, independent and in-depth reporting about the world's second-largest economy at a critical time.
Taiwan's presidential office condemned the expulsion and highlighted Beijing's pressure on press freedom. Karen Kuo said, "Taiwan will not be silenced because of oppression." The office warned the move was not just to one reporter, but to international media trying to cover Taiwan and China on their own terms.
China defended the expulsion on June 1, 2026, citing Wang's "well-documented record of fraudulent interviews" and violations of regulations governing foreign journalists. Beijing did not publicly provide evidence for those allegations. The dispute spilled into U.S.-China relations when the Trump administration revoked the visa of a Chinese state-media journalist working for Xinhua in the United States, prompting China to accuse Washington of using reciprocity to politically suppress its reporter.
Foreign reporters there are generally issued one-year visas that can be revoked at any time. In 2020, China expelled more than a dozen foreign journalists at U.S. media organizations amid tit-for-tat restrictions, and the International Federation of Journalists counted Chris Buckley's forced removal as the 19th foreign correspondent expelled from China in the previous 12 months.
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