On April 30, China's State Council banned "foreign financial information providers" from undertaking "news gathering activities" inside the country. The new measure appears inconsistent with Beijing's agreement, reached last November with Canada, the European Union and the U.S., to withdraw rules that severely restricted the activities of foreign news organizations. The withdrawn rules were clearly in violation of China's World Trade Organization obligations.
While Beijing was further restricting foreign media in China, the country's Communist Party was launching its English-language Global Times newspaper. This publication, which joins an existing Chinese-language tabloid of the same name, is a product of Beijing's latest initiative to create international media giants.
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