From The New York Times: A correspondent for The New York Times was forced to leave mainland China on December 31 after the authorities declined to issue him a visa for 2013 by year’s end.
Chris Buckley, a 45-year-old Australian who has worked as a correspondent in China since 2000, rejoined The Times in September after working for Reuters. The Times applied for Buckley to be accredited to replace a correspondent who was reassigned, but the authorities did not act before December 31, despite numerous requests. That forced Buckley, his partner and their daughter to fly to Hong Kong on Monday.
Normally, requests to transfer visas are processed in a matter of weeks or a couple of months.
The Times is also waiting for its new Beijing bureau chief, Philip P. Pan, to be accredited. Pan applied in March, but his visa has not been processed.
The visa troubles come amid government pressure on the foreign news media over investigations into the finances of senior Chinese leaders, a delicate subject. Corruption is widely reported in China, but top leaders are considered off limits.
On the day that The Times published a long investigation into the riches of the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, both its English-language Web site and its new Chinese-language site were blocked within China, and they remain so.