6. The way that the Chinese government controls who can work for foreign media organizations, NGOs (when they were actually allowed to operate), and even locally hired staff for foreign consulates and embassies is a fact of life little understood by people who have never worked in China. While not as restrictive as it was in the past, it was clear during my time there that the locals who worked closely around myself and my staff were required to maintain a line of communication with Chinese government (security) officials regarding our activities as needed. Having to balance that against their in many cases sincere desire to do their job properly and effectively was a huge burden to ask them to carry. To see the Chinese govt then turn around and punish these individuals over something they have no control over just underlines how petty this regime really is.

As far as a response, this is where we hold the line on free speech. Reciprocity is fine but I think at this point we should probably walk away from this little back and forth rather than keep clamping down on the soon to be vestigial Chinese media operation in the States. The salad days of 2014-2016 where American newspapers thoughtlessly reprinted Global Times nonsense are probably gone forever anyway.