Washington expressed deep concern over the “increasingly harsh” surveillance, harassment, and intimidation that endangered U.S. and other foreign reporters in China, including those covering recent floods in its central territory, the State Department said on July 29. “The PRC government claims to welcome foreign media and support their work, but its actions tell a different story,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement released on Thursday. He explained: “Its [Chinese regime] harsh rhetoric, promoted through official state media, toward any news it perceives to be critical of PRC policies, has provoked negative public sentiment leading to tense, in-person confrontations and harassment.” The statement came after U.S. and other foreign journalists reporting on the floods in central China’s Henan Province were verbally attacked by angry groups, both in person and online, while staff from the BBC and Los Angeles Times received death threats. In one incident, the local branch …