BEIJING: US’ latest move of limiting travel visas for Communist Party of China (CPC) members and their family members is an escalation of political repression against China by some extreme anti-China forces in the US out of ideological bias, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, while calling on the US to abandon their hatred toward the CPC.
China expressed firm opposition to US’ latest move, believing it was not in line with US’ own interests, and China has lodged representations with the US, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at Thursday’s media briefing.
“I hope that some people in the US can view China and China’s development in a more rational, calm and objective manner, give up their hatred towards the CPC, enhance correct understanding of each other through exchanges, dialogue and communication and promote healthy and stable development of China-US relations,” Hua said.
Hua’s remarks came after the New York Times report saying that the Trump administration had issued new rules to limit the maximum validity of travel visas for CPC members and their families to one month and a single entry.
The report said the policy change could affect roughly 270 million people, but it admitted that “it might be difficult to determine who, apart from high-level officials, belongs to the Party.”
The Trump administration was reportedly considering in July banning all CPC members and their families from traveling to the US, with Chinese analysts saying the US was standing in opposition to the 1.4 billion Chinese people, who account for a fifth of the world’s population. The 99-year-old CPC had 91.91 million members, with 4.68 million grassroots Party organizations as of the end of 2019, according to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
