Spokesperson Lu Kang released a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry explaining that the French reporter’s article, “overtly advocates for acts of terrorism and killings of innocent civilians, and caused public outrage among the Chinese people”.
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If Gauthier’s press card is not renewed, she can not apply for a new visa, forcing her to leave China.
The piece suggested Beijing’s expression of solidarity post-Paris ‘had “ulterior motives”, namely a desire to get the worldwide support for its claim that violence in China’s Xinjing Uighur Autonomous Region is linked to a global war on terror.
A French journalist has been expelled from China by the nation’s Foreign Ministry because of a report she filed about ethnic violence, making her the first foreign reporter expelled from China in the past few years.
“They say this is because I refuse to make a solemn and public apology for what I have written on November 18, concerning the situation in Xinjiang”, said Gauthier.
She said she was also asked to distance herself from any support group that presents her case as infringement of press freedom in China.
While the Chinese police did not specify the ethnicity of the alleged attackers, Gauthier said they were a small group of Uyghurs “pushed to the limit, probably in revenge for an abuse, an injustice or an expropriation”.
China faced a serious threat from terrorism and needed to improve its legal framework to deal with the problem, Hong added.
By then, state media had carried abusive editorials against Gauthier, accusing her of deep prejudice against China.
China’s rubber-stamp national legislature has approved the country’s first anti-terrorism law, amid concerns that its requirements that tech companies share information with the government could hurt business interests and further infringe upon human rights. “They are accusing me of things that I have not written”. Jaime FlorCruz, the Beijing bureau chief for CNN recalls that, not only did foreign journalists need government permission to leave the capital, but official minders made it hard to interact with ordinary Chinese.
The French government, through its foreign ministry, issued a statement yesterday in which it deplored the Chinese authorities’ government. He wants her to apologise for her words.
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China has confirmed the imminent expulsion of a French journalist for “flagrantly championing” terrorist acts, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website yesterday. It said it was “appalled” by the decision, and it expressed concerns that Beijing was using the accreditation and visa process to threaten foreign journalists.
