The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) on Thursday issued a statement protesting that a number of foreign correspondents were not invited to cover the formal unveiling of China's new leadership at the Great Hall of the People without an explanation.
Among the news organisations that were not invited to cover the key event were New York Times and Bloomberg News.

Hundreds of local and foreign journalists were present when the new Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Politburo was revealed in what was called a 'meet the press' event.

In the statement, FCCC asked the Chinese government to explain the criterion behind sending selective invites to foreign reporters.

"The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China is dismayed that so many foreign correspondents were denied the opportunity to attend the presentation of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the new CPC Central Committee on Thursday morning," the statement said.

"While appreciating that a lack of space meant it was not possible to invite all the foreign correspondents accredited to the 18th Party Congress, we note that a number of news organisations which had in the past been invited to such events, among them The New York Times and Bloomberg News, were not given invitations this time," it added.