Canada's CBC Shuts Down China Bureau

Canada's public broadcaster CBC said it will close its office in China after the Chinese government ignored requests for a reporter's headquarters in Beijing.

CBC mentioned that its applications had been met “by monthslong silence from Chinese officials.” The broadcaster’s last correspondent left Beijing as China closed down amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The bureau, located in one of Beijing’s high-security diplomatic compounds, had remained open in anticipation of restaffing.

On Thursday, a plaque identifying the bureau remained posted on the outside wall but no one responded to the knock or the doorbell. Calls sent by the Chinese Foreign Ministry to the office number were also unanswered.

China has taken an increasingly hard line in foreign relations, and relations with Canada collapsed after China, the US and Canada completed what was effectively a high-stakes prisoner swap last year that involved a top executive from the Chinese tech giant Huawei who was accused of fraud. by the US.

China jailed two Canadians shortly after Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer and daughter of the company's founder, at a US extradition request. They were returned to Canada in September, the same day Meng returned to China after reaching an agreement with US authorities in her case.

China has responded by expelling journalists working at US outlets and imposing severe restrictions on those who continue to work in the country.

After the visas were refused, many foreign media outlets set up reporters in Taiwan and other Asian centers to protect freedom of speech.

“There is no point keeping an empty bureau when we could easily set up elsewhere in a different country that welcomes journalists and respects journalistic scrutiny,” CBC News editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon said Wednesday in a blog post.

 “Closing the Beijing bureau is the last thing we want to do, but our hand has been forced,” Fenlon said.

CBC highlighted that Radio Canada journalist Philippe LeBlanc, the broadcaster's French counterpart, would be working from Taipei, the capital of Taiwan after Chinese diplomats ignored his requests.