China announced Wednesday that it has revoked the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal reporters and ordered them out of the country because of what Beijing deemed a racist headline on an opinion piece.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuan cited a Feb. 3 op-ed about the coronavirus outbreak by Bard College Professor Walter Russel Mead headlined “China is the Real Sick Man of Asia.”

“The editors used such a racially discriminatory title, triggering indignation and condemnation among the Chinese people and the international community,” Geng said at a news conference, CNN reported.

“Regrettably, what the WSJ has done so far is nothing but parrying and dodging its responsibility. It has neither issued an official apology nor informed us of what it plans to do with the persons involved,” he added. “As such, it is decided that from today, the press cards of three WSJ journalists will be revoked.”

The phrase “sick man of Asia” originally referred to China more than 100 years ago, when it was exploited by other countries during a period sometimes referred to as the country’s “century of humiliation,” according to AFP.

The expulsions were announced a day after Team Trump designated five state-run Chinese news outlets that operate in the US — including Xinhua and the China Global Television Network — as “foreign missions,” requiring them to register in the US.

Geng expressed Beijing’s “strong dissatisfaction,” adding that “we reserve the right to respond further to this matter.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that deputy bureau chief Josh Chin and reporter Chao Deng, both American citizens, as well as reporter Philip Wen, an Australian, had been ordered to leave China in five days.

The three reporters work in the Journal’s news section, which is not tied to the editorial and opinion section of the news outlet.

The opinion piece slammed by China criticized Beijing’s initial response to the deadly outbreak, describing the epicenter city of Wuhan’s government as “secretive and self-serving.”

Geng said the op-ed “slandered the efforts of the Chinese government and the Chinese people to fight the epidemic,” which has so far killed over 2,000 people in China and infected more than 74,000.

“The editors of the Wall Street Journal have nailed themselves to the pillar of shame,” the nationalistic Global Times said in an op-ed a day before the journalists’ credentials were pulled.

The Foreign Correspondent’s Club of China described the action against the Journal as an “unprecedented form of retaliation against foreign journalists in China,” according to CNN.

“FCCC member correspondents and their colleagues in China are suffering from an increasing frequency of harassment, surveillance and intimidation from authorities,” it said in a statement Wednesday.

“The expulsion of these three WSJ reporters is only the latest, and most alarming, measure authorities have taken,” it added.

William Lewis, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, expressed his disappointment with China’s decision.

“This opinion piece was published independently from the WSJ newsroom and none of the journalists being expelled had any involvement with it,” he said in a statement to The Post.

“In line with best practice, we enforce a complete separation between our News and Opinion departments. The News department’s role is to provide facts and analysis, while the Opinion department’s role is to provide opinion and commentary. They are separately staffed,” he said.

Lewis added that “it was not our intention to cause offense with the headline on the piece. However, this has clearly caused upset and concern amongst the Chinese people, which we regret.

“We respectfully request that China’s Foreign Ministry reinstate the visas for Philip Wen, Chao Deng and Josh Chin,” he said.

With Post wires