China revoked the press card of three Wall Street Journal reporters, asking them to leave China for five days because of an article related to the pneumonia epidemic.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing today, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Canh Shuang said the commentary titled "China - the real Asian disease" mentioned the Covid-19 outbreak. in the country, which appeared on the front page of the US Wall Street Journal on February 3 as "racist", "sensational" and criticized the magazine for not making an official apology.

"Therefore, China decided that from today, the press cards of three Wall Street Journal correspondents in Beijing will be revoked," Canh said.

Jonathan Cheng, chief of the Wall Street Journal in China, later said China had asked deputy chief of staff Josh Chin, correspondent Chao Deng, all of American nationality, and correspondent Philip Wen, Australian national, Must leave China in 5 days. This is a rare case when many reporters of the same international news organization were expelled at the same time.

China's Foreign Ministry said deportation was a punishment for US magazines. Previous Chinese public opinion was very indignant about the article's title. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Communications has repeatedly called on the Wall Street Journal to pay attention to the title.

Two U.S. diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision was made because China tightened its media management and took advantage of news outlets as propaganda tools.