The BBC’s China correspondent, John Sudworth, has left China for Taiwan amid intimidation and harassment from Chinese authorities. He is joined by his wife, the China correspondent for Irish broadcaster RTE.
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry says they were not given advance notice of the family’s decision to leave the country on March 23.
In a statement posted on Twitter Wednesday, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said that Sudworth had faced “months of personal attacks and disinformation”, and had only been able to secure short-term visas. The tweet says this was all in retaliation for reporting on issues such as the treatment of Xinjiang’s Uyghur population and COVID-19 which had displeased Beijing.
The tweet also says that attacks against Sudworth and his colleagues escalated after the UK revoked the license of China’s state broadcaster.
Sudworth remains the BBC’s China correspondent, and will continue his reporting from Taiwan.