By Jerome A. Cohen
It is not clear to me how broad the swath is here. What about the Chinese assistants to non-American journalists still working for American newspapers in Beijing? What about the situation in Shanghai? To what extent is there still American reporting based in other places in Mainland China such as Guangdong Province and Tianjin?
As Jane Perlez has noted, this latest measure heavily strikes at the ability of foreign journalists to learn about Chinese developments. It hinders them from gathering news and views that are often favorable to China and the Chinese Government as well as unfavorable, and it denies those Chinese contacted by foreign media of an opportunity to make their lives and opinions known abroad.
There is another cost to the PRC in imposing this sanction. Service Bureau personnel may be reporting to the Party everything they observe while assisting the foreigners. Their absence not only reduces what foreigners can accomplish but also reduces what the Party can learn about the activities of those foreign journalists remaining in China. Non-American journalists who are fluent in Chinese and working for American papers will undoubtedly have to work harder if they too are denied Chinese assistants but they may also be a bit freer in their efforts. When I operated a foreign law office in Beijing many years ago, our Service Bureau assistant was always annoyed by having to spend every Saturday afternoon reporting to the Party on our activities of each week!