CBC decides to shut down its China bureau

The news channel said it decided to take the move after officials ignored repeated requests for a journalist work visa.

"There is no point keeping an empty bureau when we could easily set up elsewhere in a different country that welcomes journalists and respects journalistic scrutiny," said CBC News editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon, announcing the move in a blog posted on Wednesday.

"Closing the Beijing bureau is the last thing we want to do, but our hand has been forced," Fenlon said.

The decision follows numerous exchanges and requests for meetings with the Chinese Consulate in Montreal since October 2020 to procure a visa for Philippe Leblanc, a journalist with Radio-Canada, CBC's French-language counterpart.

Another attempt was made in April, with a letter to China's ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu. While receipt of the letter was acknowledged, Fenlon said, nothing else followed, reports CBC News.

"While there was no dramatic expulsion or pointed public statements, the effect is the same. We can't get visas for our journalists to work there as permanent correspondents," he wrote.

The CBC's last Beijing correspondent, Saša Petricic, returned to Canada after China locked down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. CBC has only been back to China once since, Fenlon noted, to cover the 2022 Winter Olympics and coverage was tightly restricted.