Beijing says French scribe a ‘champion’ of terrorism
Beijing says French scribe a ‘champion’ of terrorism
China confirmed the imminent expulsion of a French journalist in the first such case since 2012, accusing her of “flagrantly championing” terrorist acts in a statement on its foreign ministry’s website Saturday.
Ursula Gauthier, a Beijing-based correspondent for French news magazine L’Obs, must issue a public apology for an article she wrote in November or China’s foreign ministry will not renew her press credentials, officials told Ms Gauthier on Christmas Day.
Her essay “flagrantly championed acts of terrorism and acts of cruelly killing innocents, triggering the Chinese people’s outrage,” said the foreign ministry statement.
Citing her failure to make a “serious apology to the Chinese people”, the statement said: “It is not suitable for her to continue working in China.”
“China will never support the freedom to champion terrorism,” it added.But the Chinese people expressed confusion over their own purported indignation, as most had not read or even heard of Ms Gauthier’s article, which has no Chinese-language version and remains inaccessible on the mainland’s censored Internet in its original French. “‘Triggered the Chinese people’s outrag-e’ Don’t presume to represent me - I don’t even know what happened!” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform. “You should put out the original article for everyone to see — otherwise how can everyone be angry ” asked another.
Entitled “After the attacks (on Paris), Chinese solidarity is not without ulterior moti-ves”, Ms Gauthier’s article spoke of China’s anti-terrorism policies in the country’s western region of Xinjiang, homeland of the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority — many of whom complain of discrimination and controls on their culture and religion. Xinjiang is often hit by deadly unrest and China blames the violence on Islamist separatists, but rights groups point to Beijing’s own actions as a driver.
If Ms Gauthier’s press card is not renewed, she cannot apply for a new visa, forcing her to leave China. “They confirmed that if I did not make a public apology on all the points that had ‘hurt the Chinese people’... my pre-ss card would not be ren-ewed and I would have to leave on December 31,” Ms Gauthier said on Friday.
