U.S. revokes Xinhua journalist visa in retaliation for China expulsion

The Trump administration revoked the visa of a Chinese national working for Xinhua in the United States after Beijing expelled Vivian Wang, the New York Times correspondent in China, turning a newsroom dispute into a direct act of retaliation.

A State Department official confirmed there was a plan to revoke the visa, and a person familiar with the matter said the revocation had already happened. The exchange marked a rare moment in which Washington responded in kind to China’s removal of an American journalist, underscoring how quickly press access has become part of the broader contest between the two governments.

The New York Times said on May 29, 2026, that Wang’s expulsion followed harassment and threats tied to her reporting on China’s security apparatus and its handling of Covid. The paper said Wang was one of only two remaining Times correspondents in China before her removal and urged both governments to reverse the deterioration in journalist access. Joseph Kahn, the Times’ executive editor, said the move would make it harder for readers to get accurate, independent reporting about the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s decision came after the New York Times DealBook interview with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te aired on December 4, 2025. Wang had no role in arranging that program, but Chinese authorities moved against her in a dispute that reflected Beijing’s sensitivity to coverage involving Taiwan and the people who shape that coverage. The expulsion also fit a pattern that has widened beyond one reporter and one outlet, reaching the terms under which foreign journalists can work in China at all.

That pattern has been tightening for years. In March 2020, China ordered U.S. journalists at the Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to surrender their credentials within 10 days, affecting at least 13 reporters. That move followed U.S. restrictions on Chinese state media visas and China’s earlier expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters. The Committee to Protect Journalists said those expulsions would sharply curtail major U.S. publications’ reporting operations in China during the coronavirus pandemic.

By spring 2026, the field had grown even narrower. One recent account said the United States had never had so few foreign correspondents in China since diplomatic relations were normalized in the 1970s, and that only two correspondents from the Times, the Journal and the Post combined remained there before Wang’s expulsion. The Wire China reported that Wang’s removal was the first expulsion of a journalist from a U.S. media outlet in China since 2020, and said Chinese authorities had already denied AFP visas for new reporters after AFP interviewed Lai in March 2026. In April 2026, pressure linked to China also disrupted Lai’s planned Africa trip.

The result is a narrowing information channel on both sides of the rivalry. As Washington and Beijing treat journalists as leverage, the cost falls on readers, businesses and diplomats trying to understand a relationship that already runs on distrust.