China has slammed a foreign correspondents club in the country as an "illegal organization,” broadening its attack on journalists whose reports differ from the government’s official line.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China has no sense of right and wrong and lacks principles, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing Thursday in Beijing.

"Fewer than half of foreign correspondents in China are members of the FCCC, and most of them are Western journalists from the U.S. and Europe,” she said. "Foreign journalists in China should feel lucky.”