L.A. Times journalist in China reports being detained, interrogated for hours by authorities

The Los Angeles Times has published a story in which the reporter says she was detained, then expelled from China's Inner Mongolia region while covering a contentious, new education policy. The incident comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and China over journalists working in each other's country. 

The details of the alleged incident — in which the reporter writes that she was interrogated by police, grabbed by the throat and forced to leave the region — were included at the end of her story Thursday about the education issue. 

The story was about a new policy that reduces the use of the Mongolian language in education.

The U.S. this year designated the American operations of several Chinese state media as foreign missions and put a cap on the number of visas for some, forcing them to reduce the size of their Chinese staff, according to the Associated Press.

China retaliated by expelling American journalists working for three U.S. newspapers, and requiring several U.S. news bureaus including the Associated Press to file paperwork similar to what's required of foreign missions in the United States.