BEIJING >> China has effectively expelled a reporter working for The Wall Street Journal after he wrote an article about an investigation in Australia involving a cousin of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, in the latest sign of a government clampdown on media freedom.

Chinese authorities declined to renew the press credentials of Chun Han Wong, a reporter in Beijing for The Journal, a spokesman from Dow Jones, the parent company of the newspaper, said in an emailed statement Friday.

“We continue to look into the matter,” the spokesman said.

In a statement, China’s Foreign Ministry said it handled matters involving foreign journalists in accordance with the law. But it added: “We are resolutely opposed to an individual foreign journalist maliciously smearing and attacking China. As for such journalists, we do not welcome them.”

The Journal’s article, co-written by Wong and published in July, said activities by Ming Chai, a cousin of Xi’s, were being scrutinized by law enforcement and intelligence officials in Australia.

Under Xi, China has taken a harder line on the media, both foreign and domestic, as it tries to shape its image around the world. Official state media outlets have become increasingly sophisticated, using social media at home and abroad to portray China’s rise as peaceful and beneficial to the world.

Those same outlets can turn on critics of China portraying difficult issues like the unrest in Hong Kong or China’s internment of hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in the country’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.

At home, Chinese officials have widened the subjects that are considered sensitive, as the Communist Party under Xi seeks a stronger influence in everyday life. They now include issues like business and economics, with authorities clamping down on what they consider negative coverage as China’s growth slows. China has also clamped down on coverage of celebrities and gossip, citing vulgar content and the need to create a healthy social environment.

Wong, 33, a Singaporean citizen, was planning to leave Beijing on Friday evening. He had reported on Chinese politics from Beijing for The Journal since 2014, documenting a crackdown on dissent under Xi, and had written an article casting doubt about the leader’s health.

But people within Dow Jones believe it was Wong’s work on the article about Chai’s activities in Australia that had gotten him expelled. Those people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the company had not made details public.

In its article Friday about Wong’s expulsion, the newspaper said Chinese officials had “urged The Journal not to publish” the article about Chai “and warned of unspecified consequences.”

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said Friday that it “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the expulsion of Wong. “Such treatment of foreign correspondents runs completely counter to Chinese claims that it supports openness and inclusiveness,” it said.

“This is a troubling development,” said Michael Slackman, international editor of The New York Times. “We condemn this action by the Chinese government and support our colleague at The Wall Street Journal. The use of visa denials to retaliate against journalists for coverage that the powerful dislike violates international standards and is unacceptable. This action appears intended to impede the free flow of information, and ultimately deprive Chinese citizens of information.”

Wong’s expulsion was reported earlier by The Washington Post.

Foreign journalists have long been closely tracked in China, but authorities have become tougher in recent years.

The tightening began in earnest around 2012, when China expelled Melissa Chan, an American journalist working for the English-language arm of Al Jazeera. It was China’s first expulsion of a journalist in 14 years.

In 2015, the government also expelled a French reporter who wrote about Xinjiang. Most recently, in August 2018, it forced out an American reporter for Buzzfeed News, who had written extensively about surveillance and mass incarceration of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

The Journal’s coverage of Chai, Xi’s cousin, touched on the sensitive subject of the wealth of China’s top leaders. Any suggestions of ill-gotten wealth could erode Xi’s cultivated image of a man of the people and his zero-tolerance approach against corruption.

Nominally communist, China has seen the gap between rich and poor widen tremendously since Beijing opened up its economy to the world and embraced business, setting off its tremendous growth spurt. The families of China’s top leaders have often benefited from that rise. Officials in Beijing regularly summon foreign journalists to complain about articles and have repeatedly warned them that reporting on the wealth of the country’s top leaders and their families is a “red line” that authorities would not tolerate.

After The Times reported in 2012 on the hidden wealth of the family of China’s then-premier, Wen Jiabao, the newspaper was unable to secure accreditation for its other reporters, one of whom had to wait for close to three years. Bloomberg News also struggled to obtain approval of new visas for journalists after its reporters wrote about the wealth accumulated by the family of Xi, who became China’s leader a year later. Both services were blocked in China.

The Journal’s article, which quoted unnamed Australian officials, delved deeply into that sensitive area.

It said authorities were scrutinizing Chai, an Australian citizen, as part of a broad money-laundering and organized-crime investigation. It described their interest in Chai’s high-stakes gambling sessions in Australian casinos, and said “he often flaunted his familial link to Mr. Xi while chasing business opportunities.” It also described his business dealings and big real estate purchases made by him and his wife.

But the reporters noted that there was “no indication that Mr. Xi did anything to advance Mr. Chai’s interests, nor that the Chinese leader has any knowledge of his cousin’s business and gambling activities.”

China’s Foreign Ministry at the time called the accusations groundless. The Journal article followed similar coverage by Australian news outlets. Others, including The New York Times, also covered the investigation. The Times’ article said Chai was not the main target of the investigation.

Chinese officials have offered little indication they will soften their tone.

In its 2018 annual survey of working conditions for foreign journalists in China, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said authorities had issued severely shortened visas and reporting credentials, including one for just 2 1/2 months, to at least five correspondents. More than half of the respondents, the largest proportion since 2011, said they believed conditions deteriorated in 2018, when foreign media coverage of pro-democracy protests prompted a government backlash.

“Survey results painted the darkest picture of reporting conditions inside China in recent memory,” the club said.