On January 30, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) published the results of its annual members’ survey on the reporting environment in China. The group’s membership includes 218 foreign correspondents based in Beijing, including The Sankei Shimbun.
The report revealed that 40% of the respondents believe “reporting conditions are getting worse.” Among other things, they noted that the authorities are increasingly interfering with reporting in sensitive regions, such as the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region and the border between China and North Korea.
Among the tactics used by the Chinese government to interfere with their reporting, they cited electronic eavesdropping, tailing or human surveillance and unannounced entries into their living quarters. The report said that the obstacles to reporting are especially severe in Xinjiang, amid allegations of widespread human rights abuses there against followers of Islam.
Furthermore, the report discussed the visa issues for foreign journalists in China. Previously, the customary practice for the Beijing authorities had been to issue foreign reporters one-year journalist visas. However, newsmen who have gotten on the Chinese authorities’ blacklist for writing articles which upset them, or for other reasons, are being granted only abbreviated authorized stays.
Specifically, reporters from five news organizations — The Sankei Shimbun (Japan), the New York Times and the Voice of America (U.S.), the BBC (U.K.), and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia) — have been issued short-term visas ranging from only 2.5 months to six months.
The Chinese media has subsequently been filled with a chorus of condemnation of The Sankei Shimbun reporter for impudent “provocation” and other sins.
Japan should be more aggressive with joint fisheries research and projects with Philippines fishery colleges marine capture professors. While there are some cooperation they focused on few institutions and people who are probably china sympathizers?