The BBC's Beijing correspondent John Sudworth has moved to Taiwan after being pressured and threatened by the Chinese authorities.
Correspondent Sudworth has been in China for nine years and is an award-winning reporter on the treatment of Uyghurs in China's western Xinjiang region.
I left Beijing with my family because it was becoming difficult to stay in China. Plainclothes police followed him to the check-in area at the airport. The Sudworth correspondent's wife, Yvonne Marie, is the China correspondent for RTE, Ireland's public broadcaster.
Correspondent Sudworth says that wherever he works in China, he and his reporting team are monitored and threatened with legal action. He also said he was harassed and threatened.
The reporting team is still in Beijing. The correspondent said he would continue reporting from Taiwan.
The BBC issued a statement about Sudworth, which he said was proud of his journalistic work and would continue to be his correspondent to China.
"John's press work has revealed a truth that the Chinese authorities don't want the world to know," he said.
China has hitherto criticized the BBC's coverage of Xinjiang.
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press conference that authorities were not notified in advance of Sudworth's departure.
The other day, when Sudworth's press card was renewed, I learned that Sudworth left without saying goodbye. "
International media reporting from China continues to decline. Last year, journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and others were forced out of the country.
Last September, the last two Australian media China correspondents left China after a five-day diplomatic standoff between the two countries.
China's Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) posted a statement on Twitter. A foreign journalist said, "We are embroiled in a diplomatic confrontation that we cannot do on our own."
The abuse of colleagues at Sudworth and the BBC shows widespread harassment and intimidation that interfere with the work of Chinese correspondents, and increasing pressure on Chinese news assistants. "
(English article BBC's John Sudworth leaves China after threats)
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