China detained Chinese employees in Bloomberg in the US “National Security Threat”

-US economic media Bloomberg News said Chinese authorities had detained their employees who had worked in the Beijing office.

According to the Associated Press on the 11th (local time), Bloomberg announced that Hayes Pan, an employee of Bloomberg and a Chinese citizen, was taken from his apartment by security personnel in plain clothes at noon on the 7th.

He is accused of committing crimes that endanger national security. The AP said the charges in China were vague charges that could lead to long-term detention with little legal assistance.

Bloomberg is seeking information about his whereabouts from the Chinese government and the Chinese embassy in Washington. He joined Bloomberg in 2017 after working for several other foreign news agencies in China. According to the AP, China allows foreign media outlets to work as translators, researchers, and assistants. You cannot register as an independent journalist.

Most of the Chinese media outlets are state-run media and are under strict controls, the AP said.

As relations between the US and China deteriorate day by day, China is excluding officials from foreign media companies.

Cheong Lei, a Chinese Australian who worked as an anchor for CGTN, the English channel of CCTV, was detained in August. Two Australian correspondents in China were banned from leaving the country but left China after negotiations between the two governments.

The Chinese Foreign Journalists Association said in an official Twitter account statement on September 7th, “We are very anxious that the Chinese authorities have stopped renewing the qualifications for reporters working for US media organizations.”

[베이징=AP/뉴시스]