On March 27, 2020, the principal official of the Information Department of the Foreign Ministry met respectively with the principals of the Beijing bureaus of the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, lodging stern representations over the open letter to the Chinese government co-signed by publishers of three US media outlets.

The Chinese side expressed, the open letter co-signed by three US media outlets was obviously sent to the wrong recipient. Relevant content is confounding white with black, confusing right and wrong and full of arrogance and prejudice. The Chinese side is firmly opposed to and will never accept it. China's measures are a necessary countermeasure to the US long-term unreasonable suppression of Chinese media organizations in the US, and they are reasonable. Faced with the suppression of the Chinese media by the US side due to ideological prejudice, the US media neither spoke up for their Chinese colleagues nor urged the US government to revoke the wrong decision. Where was the "freedom of press" that the US has always claimed to advocate?

The open letter attempted to link China's countermeasures to the reporting of the fight against the COVID-19, claiming that without these US journalists, the rest of the world would have no access to the COVID-19 situation in China. Moreover, relevant US journalists must know quite well in their heart whether they had reported comprehensively, faithfully, and objectively to the world on China's fight against the coronavirus.

The Chinese side stressed, the Chinese side welcomes foreign media and their journalists to cover China in compliance with laws and regulations. What we oppose is ideological bias against China and the fabrication of fake news under the excuse of "freedom of press". What we oppose are behaviors that violate the professional ethics of journalism. As the saying goes, "He who tied the knot should untie it." If the three media agencies have complaints, they should bring them to the US government.

The Chinese side also reminded the Wall Street Journal again that the newspaper still owes the Chinese people an apology for publishing an article with an insulting headline!