Expelled WSJ reporters leave China after headline row

Two Wall Street Journal reporters left China yesterday after being expelled over a controversial headline in an op-ed that angered Beijing. Three reporters were ordered out of the country last week over what Beijing deemed a racist headline that the journalists were not involved in writing -- marking one of the harshest moves against foreign media in years. But analysts noted that the decision to revoke their press credentials came a day after Washington tightened rules on Chinese state media operating in the United States -- raising suspicion that Beijing had retaliated. The Journal opinion piece -- headlined "China is the Real Sick Man of Asia" -- was written by a US professor who criticised the Chinese government's initial response to the coronavirus outbreak. China's foreign ministry said it was "racially discriminatory", and as the newspaper would not apologise, the three China-based reporters had their press cards revoked.