Megha Rajagopalan, Buzzfeed’s China bureau chief, is now being forced to leave China after the renewal of her journalist visa was denied by Chinese authorities. On Twitter, Rajagopalan writes that China’s Foreign Ministry did not give her an explanation for the decision, only saying that it was a “process thing.”

It is bittersweet to leave Beijing after spending six wonderful and eye-opening years as a journalist there. In May, China's Foreign Ministry declined to issue me a new journalist visa. They say this is a process thing, we are not totally clear why. — Megha Rajagopalan (@meghara) August 22, 2018

Rajagopalan has worked in China for the past six years. Recently, she has earned a reputation for being one of the boldest foreign journalists in reporting about Xinjiang, writing articles about the sprawling state surveillance system that Beijing is building in the region, as well as stories about the mass repression and detainments of Uighurs.

On Twitter, Rajagopalan writes that no longer being inside China will not stop her from reporting on these issues.

I also want to make clear that though I can't do it from inside China anymore, I'm not going to stop reporting on and speaking about state surveillance, repression and incarceration of millions of Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. — Megha Rajagopalan (@meghara) August 22, 2018

After breaking the news of her forced departure, Rajagopalan has received an outpouring of support from fellow China watchers and reporters, including Ursula Gauthier, a French journalist who was similarly shown the door in 2015 after writing an article which criticized the Chinese government’s policy towards Uighurs in Xinjiang.

Gauthier’s article suggested that China was using the November 2015 Paris attacks to justify its crackdown on Uighurs. China’s Foreign Ministry said that the article “openly supports terrorist activity,” soon Gauthier was told that her J visa would not be renewed.

It’s a sad news for journalism (you did such a fantastic job) and another blow to independent coverage of China. Welcome to the club of expelled China correspondents. https://t.co/ZwBJBperBa — Ursula Gauthier (@ugauthier) August 22, 2018

First ⁦@ugauthier⁩ and now ⁦@meghara⁩ kicked out of China. What do they have in common? They both made their mark writing about Xinjiang. This story by Megha is superb and essential journalism. https://t.co/dGcvsOrOVd — Mike Forsythe 傅才德 (@PekingMike) August 22, 2018

Why was @meghara kicked out of China? Almost certainly because of her groundbreaking coverage of the massive humanitarian crisis in Xinjiang. She is a stellar reporter who will thrive anywhere. This cowardly action validates her excellence: The Communist Party is scared of her. https://t.co/FGZ8FwM0eo — Mike Forsythe 傅才德 (@PekingMike) August 22, 2018

As Joanna Chiu, a formerly Beijing-based correspondent for AFP, notes, China typically avoids outright expelling foreign journalists and instead simply waits for their visas to expire, leaving the journalists and news agencies in a kind of limbo.

For example, after the New York Times published a story on the wealth of former premier Wen Jiabao’s family in 2012, China began refusing to renew the visas of Times reporters while also declining to give accreditation to newly-hired journalists. The move led to Joe Biden voicing his “profound disagreements” during a visit to Beijing, but no retaliation from the US against Chinese reporters. It was only after a wait of three years that China started to give approval to the paper’s reporters again.

In other instances authorities never said definitively that they were declining the renewal and let correspondents wait for months + even years outside China for notification, separating families in limbo. The US has not retaliated by doing the same to Chinese reporters in US. https://t.co/7ADZ8PVMIj — Joanna Chiu 趙淇欣 (@joannachiu) August 22, 2018

In response to Rajagopalan being denied a new visa, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China has issued a statement, saying that they find the move “extremely regrettable and unacceptable for a government that repeatedly insists it welcomes foreign media to cover the country.”

The FCCC issues the following statement in response to news that @meghara is taking up a new role after being denied a new visa in China: pic.twitter.com/3ItBcxzzrA — Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (@fccchina) August 22, 2018

Click here to read more of Rajagopalan’s reporting on China and Asia.

[Images via Oslo Freedom Forum]