The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China sent an e-mail yesterday concerning a survey of its membership about the visa process here. The results of that effort, and some additional research by the Club, are worth noting:

"Over the past two years 27 foreign journalists have been made to wait more than four months for approval of their applications for visas to be resident correspondents in China. 13 of them have been waiting more than six months and are still waiting. Three requests presented in 2009 have not received a response, which in practice means they have been denied.

A further 28 permanent postings or reporting trips have been cancelled since 2009 because applications for the required journalistic visas were rejected or ignored by the Chinese authorities, the survey found.

In six cases, foreign reporters say they were told by Foreign Ministry officials that their bureaux’ visa applications had been rejected or put on hold due to the content of the bureaux’ or the applicant’s previous coverage of Chinese affairs.

...

Such threats and unreasonable delays in issuing journalist visas are inconsistent both with the Chinese authorities’ repeated pledges to offer 'all conveniences' to foreign correspondents and with international practice."