{
  "title": "Search in China, from 2020, national level",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/search?country=CN&from=2020&level=national",
  "filters": {
    "country": "CN",
    "from": "2020",
    "level": "national"
  },
  "sort": "date",
  "count": 5,
  "page": 1,
  "pages": 1,
  "per_page": 50,
  "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.",
  "facets": {
    "country": [
      {
        "value": "CN",
        "label": "China",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 178,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180",
          "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
        }
      }
    ],
    "continent": [
      {
        "value": "asia",
        "label": "Asia"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "credential_control",
        "label": "Credential control",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "label": "Secrets and espionage laws",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "detention_and_violence",
        "label": "Detention and violence",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "expulsion_and_visa_denial",
        "label": "Expulsion and visa denial",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "access_ban",
        "label": "Access bans",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "punish",
        "label": "Punish",
        "count": 3
      },
      {
        "value": "eliminate",
        "label": "Eliminate",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 5
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "sustained",
        "label": "Sustained",
        "count": 3
      },
      {
        "value": "ongoing",
        "label": "Ongoing",
        "count": 2
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "xi-jinping",
        "label": "Xi Jinping"
      }
    ],
    "era": [
      {
        "value": "2020s",
        "label": "2020s",
        "count": 5
      }
    ],
    "year": [
      {
        "value": "2020",
        "label": "2020",
        "count": 4
      },
      {
        "value": "2024",
        "label": "2024",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 5
      }
    ]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "2024-china-dong-yuyu-espionage-sentence",
      "title": "China: editor Dong Yuyu is sentenced to seven years for espionage over meals with a diplomat",
      "occurred_on": "2024-11-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "month",
      "country": "CN",
      "country_name": "China",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "CN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "xi-jinping",
      "leader_name": "Xi Jinping",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Dong had worked at Guangming Daily, a state-run Chinese newspaper, since 1987 and was known for commentary that engaged with foreign diplomats and officials as part of his beat.",
      "outcome": "ongoing",
      "outcome_on": "2024-11-01",
      "outcome_note": "Dong's appeal remained pending before the Beijing High Court as of the September 2025 report reviewed, with its deadline repeatedly extended.",
      "stage": "eliminate",
      "ladder_note": "A veteran editor received a seven-year espionage sentence for meeting a foreign diplomat over lunch, a routine journalistic contact rather than any published disclosure.",
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 178,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A Chinese court sentenced Guangming Daily editor and columnist Dong Yuyu to seven years in prison for espionage after his 2022 arrest while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, a case his son called purely political.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2024-china-dong-yuyu-espionage-sentence"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2020-china-arrests-zhang-zhan",
      "title": "China: citizen journalist Zhang Zhan imprisoned for Wuhan reporting",
      "occurred_on": "2020-05-14",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "CN",
      "country_name": "China",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "CN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence",
      "tactics": [
        "detention_and_violence"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "xi-jinping",
      "leader_name": "Xi Jinping",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Not stated in the sources reviewed.",
      "outcome": "ongoing",
      "outcome_on": null,
      "outcome_note": "Zhang completed her original four-year sentence and was released in 2024, but the sources reviewed report a second case against her the following year.",
      "stage": "eliminate",
      "ladder_note": "China imprisoned a citizen journalist for four years over her Wuhan reporting, then opened a second case against her after release; United States detention incidents in the record ended in release the same day.",
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 178,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "China detained citizen journalist Zhang Zhan for posting independent video reports from Wuhan during the early COVID-19 outbreak, later convicting her of \"picking quarrels and provoking trouble\" and, after her release, detaining her again years later.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-china-arrests-zhang-zhan"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2020-china-press-card-visa-restrictions-us-outlets",
      "title": "China: press credentials and visas withheld from correspondents at three American newspapers",
      "occurred_on": "2020-03-18",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "CN",
      "country_name": "China",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "CN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "credential_control",
      "tactics": [
        "credential_control"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "xi-jinping",
      "leader_name": "Xi Jinping",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The findings covered a year in which China expelled dozens of foreign journalists amid tit-for-tat measures with the United States and additional restrictions tied to the coronavirus outbreak.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2021-03-03",
      "outcome_note": "The credential and visa denials were in force for the year covered by the survey, with no reversal reported in the source reviewed.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": "Credentials and visas needed to work at all were denied to correspondents at three named outlets on a national scale, on top of earlier individual expulsion orders.",
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 178,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A survey by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China found the government refused new press credentials to journalists tied to American outlets and cancelled or refused visas for correspondents at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post through 2020.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-china-press-card-visa-restrictions-us-outlets"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2020-china-expels-us-newspaper-journalists",
      "title": "China expels American journalists from three major U.S. newspapers",
      "occurred_on": "2020-03-17",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "CN",
      "country_name": "China",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "CN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "expulsion_and_visa_denial",
      "tactics": [
        "credential_control",
        "expulsion_and_visa_denial"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "xi-jinping",
      "leader_name": "Xi Jinping",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The expulsions followed a rapid exchange of measures: a Wall Street Journal opinion piece China objected to, the U.S. capping Chinese state-media staff, and China's decision to expel American reporters from three outlets in response, all unfolding as the coronavirus pandemic was spreading globally.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": null,
      "outcome_note": "The expelled journalists' press credentials were not restored; reciprocal media restrictions between the two countries continued for years afterward.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 178,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "China ordered American correspondents for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to leave the country, in a reciprocal response to the Trump administration capping the number of Chinese state-media employees allowed in the United States, which itself followed China's earlier expulsion of three Journal reporters over an opinion headline.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-china-expels-us-newspaper-journalists"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2020-china-expels-three-wsj-journalists-headline",
      "title": "China: three Wall Street Journal correspondents expelled over an opinion headline",
      "occurred_on": "2020-02-19",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "CN",
      "country_name": "China",
      "continent": "asia",
      "jurisdiction": "CN",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "access_ban",
      "tactics": [
        "access_ban"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "xi-jinping",
      "leader_name": "Xi Jinping",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The Wall Street Journal had published an opinion column on February 3, 2020, by an outside scholar, headlined \"China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia,\" about the economic effects of the coronavirus outbreak.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2020-02-19",
      "outcome_note": "The three journalists' press credentials were revoked and the expulsion carried out; no reversal is reported in the source reviewed.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": "Working correspondents were expelled from the country over content written by someone outside their newsroom, not barred from one building or event.",
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 178,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 178th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2020s",
      "granularity": "granular",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "China's foreign ministry expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents and revoked their press credentials after an opinion column, unrelated to their own reporting, used a headline the ministry called offensive.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2020-china-expels-three-wsj-journalists-headline"
    }
  ],
  "other_results": [],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/search?country=CN&from=2020&level=national&format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/search.json?country=CN&from=2020&level=national",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/search.md?country=CN&from=2020&level=national"
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  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}