It’s not news that Donald Trump sees media as an enemy. Yet the former TV personality’s draconian attitude towards Chinese media is shocking the world.

Following a round of restrictions on Chinese media, the Trump administration in June labeled four Chinese media organizations, the People’s Daily, China Central Television, the China News Service, and the Global Times, as “foreign missions.” Under this new rule, staff at those organizations will have to register with the federal government for any reporting activities and could even be forced to leave the country if their visas are not renewed every three months.

According to a People’s Daily reporter based in Washington DC, his review was still being processed after submitting his fingerprints. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin also confirmed that almost all Chinese journalists have filed their visa renewal request but none received approval from the US government. 

The suppression on Chinese journalists has been seen as another attack by the White House to fuel the “China threat” theory and cover up their misgovernment.

America is facing an unprecedented health crisis that is taking a huge economic toll. The number of reported coronavirus cases in the country has surpassed 4.8 million, with GDP shrinking 32.9 percent in the second quarter. As protests against racial injustice and policing continue for months, policymakers in Washington are not focused on dealing with the urgent matters at hand. 

Instead, they spread conspiracy theories to scapegoat China, criticize China’s national security law, shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston, call for a joint international rejection of Huawei, and make provocations on the South China Sea, bringing the relationship between the two countries to the brink of a new cold war.

White House advisors may believe that this anti-China strategy could stop Trump from losing more votes in the 2020 presidential election in November. It is unfortunate that Chinese journalists have fallen victim to Washington’s suppression, struggling with career uncertainties.

Many stories done by these Chinese journalists have let US scientists or scholars provide the public expert knowledge on the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontline health workers and residents have told Chinese journalists touching personal stories of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic, these journalists had shed light on stories of minorities in the US, which mainstream US media organizations fail to cover. Hindering Chinese journalists from fulfilling their role of telling the truth and informing a global audience is inhumane and pathetic.

If all Chinese journalists are forced to leave the country, will schools across the US reopen in fall safely? Will systematic racial discrimination be erased from US society? Will mass shooting cases and drug overdose problems end? Will more jobs be created and restore people’s confidence in consumption? 

Evicting Chinese journalists from the country is not going to fix the widening cracks on the sinking boat and save the lives of the rest on board, nor will it win the US any bargaining chips in the confrontational situation it dragged China into.

The last thing the world would like to see is tensions to escalate between the two powers, adding to the insecurities of the global market and regional instability. When the “beacon of democracy” starts to expel the media, it again proves the advocacy of freedom among politicians is a bad check written to voters.