China is set to expel a New York Times reporter over a visa rule technicality in a sign of renewed pressure from Beijing on international media organisations.
The Chinese foreign ministry insists that Austin Ramzy, a NYT correspondent who has been waiting for a journalist visa since June, violated procedures and would therefore have to leave the country after the 30-day tourist visa he is using expires on Thursday.
The New York Times and Bloomberg News agency have been the target of a political pressure by Chinese officials after they published articles in 2012 disclosing the secretly amassed wealth of the family members of senior Communist party leaders. Since then, neither organisation has been given any new journalist visas, although existing ones have been extended. One reporter for the New York Times, Chris Buckley, was forced to leave Beijing in December 2012 pending a visa application which still has not been approved.