Pompeo hits back at China for booting U.S. journalists

Pompeo hits back at China for booting U.S. journalists

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday he regretted China's decision to rescind the press credentials of more U.S. journalists and hoped Beijing would "reconsider." Gavino Garay has more.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday hit back at China over its decision to kick out American journalists from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

This just latest escalation in an ongoing tit-for-tat feud between the two world powers.

Last month, Beijing expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents, including two Americans.

Then, Washington cut back the number of Chinese journalists working at the State Department who were allegedly operating under less that genuine journalistic auspices.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO SAYING: "The Chinese will tell you that they want more people to know about their country, yet they continue to take actions like the one you've seen today, where they deny the world the capacity to know what's really going on inside another country.

The individuals that we identified a few weeks back were not media that were acting here freely." Pompeo's remarks came after China announced in the early hours Wednesday that it would be rescinding the American journalists' credentials within ten days that expire by the end of the year.

Pompeo said he hoped China would "reconsider" it's retaliatory measure, during a time when the world struggles to contain the rapidly spreading coronavirus.