China has expelled a Wall Street Journal reporter from the country -- a month after the newspaper published a report detailing allegations against a cousin of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The publication had said one of President Xi's cousins was involved in high-stakes gambling and potential money laundering in Australia.
Chinese authorities told the Journal on Friday that press credentials would not be renewed for Chun Han Wong, a Singapore national who has covered Chinese politics out of the paper's Beijing bureau since 2014. Those credentials expired Friday.
This is the first time that the Chinese government has effectively banned a reporter from the Journal.
Wong was one of two authors of a July 30 report disclosing a far-reaching Australian law-enforcement and intelligence probe into Ming Chai, one of Xi's cousins and an Australian citizen.
The report cited Australian officials and casino documents and detailed Chai's lavish spending in resorts.
The story also noted there were no indications Xi knew about his cousin's activities in Australia or that the Chinese leader was implicated in any wrongdoing.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China said, in a statement, that Wong was the sixth journalist to leave the country since 2013, and condemned the move "in the strongest possible terms."
(with inputs from agencies)
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