Australian Reporter Says There Is 'No Room' in China for Journalists Who Contradict Ruling Party

An Australian reporter said there is no longer "room" in China for journalists who contradict the Chinese government.

"In China, there's no room for any opinion that does not match that of the Chinese Communist Party," Michael Smith said during a Wednesday panel at the National Press Club of Australia, the Associated Press reported.

A reporter for The Australian Financial Review, Smith was forced to flee Shanghai after police demanded an interview and temporarily blocked his departure, AP reported.

During the Wednesday panel discussion, Smith said he believed China once welcomed foreign journalists to "spread the news about China's economic miracle." Now, he said, foreign reporters are "barely tolerated" in the country.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

In response, Wang Xining, the deputy head of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Australia, said he was "sympathetic" toward Smith's analysis but disagreed with his statement.

"Michael and I discussed that issue, we'll continue to discuss and we'll find out a solution for this," Wang said. "But in general, I would disagree with Michael saying that my government no longer welcomes foreign journalists because our policy is we welcome journalists from every corner of the world and also from the Western countries.

"We never discriminate against any journalists, but we hope foreign journalists in China will present the true image of China."

Many foreign journalists in China have been placed on short-term visas of as little as three months, making travel within the country difficult. China has also blocked already-limited access to the BBC, partly in retribution for Britain's revocation of the UK broadcasting license of the foreign arm of the state news channel CCTV.

Smith said the BBC's former Beijing correspondent, John Sudworth, was the latest high-profile journalist to leave China after reporting about detention camps in northwest Xinjiang and allegations that minority groups were coerced into working in textile factories.

The BBC reported last month that Sudworth and his family had moved to Taiwan following pressure and threats from Chinese authorities.

Smith and Bill Birtles, an Australian Broadcasting Corp. reporter who fled Beijing at the same time as Smith and under similar circumstances, had sheltered in Australian diplomatic compounds before they were allowed to leave China under a deal brokered between the two governments.

China's foreign ministry later said Australian security agents had in June raided the Sydney homes of four journalists working for Chinese state media and seized their electronics, citing possible violations of Australia's anti-foreign interference law.

The journalists representing Xinhua News Agency, China Central Radio, CCTV and China News Agency had since returned to China.

Smith said on Wednesday that the Sydney raids were "obviously the trigger for what happened to us."

"Bill Birtles and myself sort of became pawns in this tit-for-tat political game being played by Australia and China," Smith said.

Before their departure, Chinese police questioned both journalists about Australian citizen Cheng Lei, a business news anchor for CGNT, China's English-language state media channel, who had been detained a month earlier.

Wang said Cheng lawfully remained in detention.

"She was apprehended because she was suspected of violating the security law of China and all these cases will be handled according to Chinese legal procedure and legal documents," Wang said.