A French journalist is preparing to leave China after the Communist government said she was no longer “suitable”‘ to be allowed to work there.
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Calling Gauthier’s report supportive of violence committed by Uighurs, which China considers terrorist activity, Beijing officials are refusing to grant an extension for her press visa, which expires December 31.
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MUST WATCH Embassies warn of threats against Westerners in Beijing 01:55 In a press release published by the Chinese language Foreign Ministry Sat., spokesperson Lu Kang stated Gauthier’s article “overtly advocates for acts of terrorism and killings of innocent civilians, and caused public outrage among the Chinese people”. Amid a counterterrorism campaign, a Xinjiang court past year sentenced a Uighur (pronounced WEE-gur) scholar critical of China’s ethnic policies in Xinjiang to life in prison. Christophe Deloire, general secretary of Reporters Without Borders, also says, “Beijing demonstrates its will to restrict foreign journalists, likewise Chinese reporters”.
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But according to Ursula Gauthier, the Chinese government had ulterior motives for supporting France and was conflating the what happened in France with its own domestic ethnic violence. Gautier’s opinion triggered harsh criticism in the state-controlled press, a public censure from a government spokeswoman, and a surge of threats and abuse online.
The trouble began with an article on November 18, shortly after the attacks in Paris. According to the AP, China announced Saturday that it would not renew her credentials, which will effectively force her to leave the country.
She also said in her article that the violent attacks in Xinjiang involving members of the minority Uighur community appeared to be homegrown and there was no evidence of any foreign ties in it. Gauthier is not the only journalist who made this observation as the same has been said by many foreign experts.
Prior to Sunday, China did not have a specialized counter-terrorism law, though related provisions feature in various NPC Standing Committee decisions. This month, a Beijing court convicted a prominent lawyer of fanning ethnic hatred based on his comments that Beijing should rethink its Xinjiang policies.
Zhu Yongbiao, assistant director of the Institute of Central Asia Studies at Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Sunday that the poll results, which show a 95 percent support for the foreign ministry, is a sign that the French reporter’s article has crossed a moral baseline.
Gauthier said Friday that the Foreign Ministry demanded that she apologize for “hurting the Chinese people’s feelings with wrong and hateful actions and words” and to publicly state that she recognizes that there have been terrorist attacks in and outside Xinjiang.
Speaking after China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament passed the law, Li Shouwei, deputy head of the parliament’s criminal law division under the legislative affairs committee, said China was simply doing what other Western nations already do in asking technology firms to help fight terror.
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Xinjiang, which is home to a large population of Muslim Uighurs, has always been troubled by violence blamed by the government on militant separatists.
