Over the past year, the Justice Department has pressured CGTN America to detail its connections to the Chinese state. The Chinese broadcaster has asserted to the American authorities that the Beijing government does not tell it what to broadcast.

[Read more about the scrutiny of CGTN and its programming in the United States.]

Most of the recalled employees were given roughly a month to depart the United States and return to China, one of the people added. The move to pull a large number of vital people from the organization without warning created uncertainty among the staff, according to the person, especially because their replacements would need time to apply for visas.

CGTN America, which reaches 30 million households in the United States, is part of a broad campaign by Beijing to increase Chinese soft power across the globe.

In a filing made under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires those doing publicity work on behalf of foreign governments to register with the United States government, Ms. Ma sought to separate CGTN from China’s government. She wrote in the Justice Department filing that the group enjoyed editorial independence from any state control and that it operated like other news media organizations.

The reason for the recalls, as well as the effect they might have on the status of the broadcaster’s filing with the American authorities, were unclear. CGTN America and Ms. Ma did not respond to emailed requests for comment. CCTV did not respond to a faxed request for comment. The Justice Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.