March 12, 2021 - Epoch Times
05:15
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| China's foreign ministry summoned Britain's ambassador in Beijing on March 9th to make stern representations over an inappropriate article she wrote recently. | |
| Britain's ambassador to China, Caroline Wilson, posted her article in Chinese on the official WeChat account of the British Embassy in Beijing on March 2nd. | |
| Addressing the question, do foreign media hate China? | |
| The article was soon rebuked as propaganda by Chinese state media and forbidden to be shared on WeChat. | |
| What is it in the article that irritated the Chinese authorities? | |
| Foreign media in China is independent and supervises the behavior of both the local government and the Chinese government, Wilson wrote. | |
| She believes that when foreign media criticize the Chinese regime, it doesn't mean that they dislike China. | |
| I think they act in good faith and play an active role as a supervisory agency of government actions, ensuring that people have access to accurate information and protecting those who have no voice, she wrote. | |
| Unlike foreign media, Chinese media can only report critically under the conditions allowed by the government. | |
| Caroline Wilson's statement not only represents her views at a personal level, but also represents her country and even the voice of mainstream Western society. | |
| In fact, the CCP elevated it to the diplomatic channel when they summoned her. | |
| In the past, this kind of move was very rare for the Chinese government. | |
| The Chinese authorities would just let it go. | |
| It's a new phenomenon that the Chinese regime is taking a tough stance this time. | |
| Wilson's article came out amid growing tensions between the two countries. | |
| In the past month, Beijing has repeatedly expressed anger at BBC's reporting on large-scale sexual crimes against Uyghur women in Xinjiang's internment camps, denouncing it as fake news. | |
| Chinese state media has also stepped up its attack on mainstream Western media. | |
| For instance, China Daily labeled foreign media as China haters. | |
| Without naming BBC directly, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a statement targeting Caroline Wilson, saying that she used the official platform to express grievances for individual foreign media which have been sanctioned for fake news and contrived reports, deliberately confusing news defamation with news supervision. | |
| Victor Ho, a veteran media professional, pointed out that the CCP's statement can be easily debunked by quoting a simple fact. | |
| The CCP has never allowed any foreign media to conduct independent and unrestricted interviews in Shijang. | |
| Instead, it tried every means to obstruct foreign media. | |
| This simple fact invalidates all its fake news statements about foreign media. | |
| Therefore, the CCP's condemnation of foreign media, including BBC, has no credibility at all. | |
| As a matter of fact, China deported 18 foreign journalists last year and refused to renew press cards for U.S. journalists in retaliation for five Chinese media agencies being listed as foreign missions in the United States. | |
| This was Beijing's largest expulsion of foreign journalists since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. | |
| In the past year, the CCP's cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak has caused the virus to spread all over the world. | |
| In addition, the regime's suppression of Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists and persecution of faith groups has awakened many in Western countries. | |
| These countries countered the CCP's large-scale foreign propaganda campaign with unprecedented resistance. | |
| For example, British broadcasting regulators revoked the license of the CCP's mouthpiece China Global Television Network, CGTN, last month. | |
| Furthermore, on March 8th, a fine of £225,000 was imposed on CGTN for violating fairness, privacy and impartiality regulations. | |
| After being summoned by Chinese officials, Wilson continued to speak out on Twitter. | |
| I stand by my article. | |
| No doubt the outgoing Chinese ambassador to the UK stands by the 170-plus pieces he was free to place in mainstream British media. | |
| Chinese ambassadors and many Chinese state media actually enjoy a high degree of freedom in the West. | |
| They have published many articles and opinion pieces to promote the so-called great achievements of the CCP. In addition, the CCP has acquired a large number of English language and foreign language media in the West for its publicity campaign. | |
| Therefore, what the CCP is doing now is trying to win a fallacious argument by taking an overbearing attitude. | |
| The international community certainly will not keep silent because of their threats and condemnation. |
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