BEIJING: China has refused to renew the press credentials of a French journalist, effectively expelling her, unless she recants one of her stories, the reporter told AFP on Friday, the first such case since 2012. Ursula Gauthier, a Beijing-based correspondent for French news magazine L’Obs, must issue a public apology for an article she wrote last month or China’s foreign ministry will not renew her press credentials, set to expire on December 31, officials told Gauthier on Christmas Day.