China’s flagship airline is being accused of racism after its in-flight magazine warned tourists to avoid parts of London “populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people” because of safety concerns. She said this would show him “what an worldwide city London is”.
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Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting, which has a large Indian and Pakistani population, told the EveningStandard that she found the comments “offensive to all Londoners, not just the ethnic minorities mentioned”.
‘I think that it is offensive to Londoners and I would like to see it removed.
The company is the third largest company of this kind in China and has daily flights, even two per day, from Beijing to London.
On a webpage of the Air China website, its in-flight magazine is described as “a formal magazine approved by the General Administration of Press and Publication of the PRC”, China’s censorship bureau.
In a feature on visiting the capital, the airline urges travellers to be wary and take precautions when entering high ethnic minority areas in the capital.
‘Why they feel they needed to warn people of something that is not reflective of London at all?
Air China’s “Wings of China” carries a long feature on visiting London, with nearly a third of the magazine dedicated to tourist attractions in Britain’s capital and other famous towns such as Oxford, the CNBC reported.
A London MP has written to the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom for an apology. “The advice (of the airline) is at odds with the London promoted by its Mayor Sadiq Khan, a Brit with Pakistani parents, who in July launched a #LondonisOpen campaign and frequently blogs about his favourite places to eat and drink in his South London Indian-Pakistani neighbourhood of Tootin”, the journalist wrote.
Allin-Khan said she would write to the Chinese ambassador to Britain to invite him to visit Tooting, “where all races live side by side. Then they can see how we live and our wonderfully diverse community”.
In the same paper, assemblywoman Florence Eshalomi called the airline tips “outdated and near-on racist views”.
“We want people who embrace our diversity and different culture – that is the make-up of London”.
“They should be removed immediately”.
It’s not the first time a Chinese company has been caught up in a race row over advertorial or commercial content.
Britain is an increasingly popular destination for Chinese visitors – with more than 270,000 visiting in 2015, up 46% on 2014, according to Visit Britain. Chinese visitors spent 586 million pounds ($786 million) in total in Britain in 2015, up 18 percent on 2014.
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In May, a controversial TV advert for Qiaobi laundry detergent in China was attacked as racist after it showed a black man being “cleaned” to become Chinese.
