Outside the BBC headquarters in Portland Place, London Photo: AFP
The Information Department of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged solemn representations recently with the BBC's Beijing bureau over fake news related to China.
Such reports include so-called "forced labor" in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,” and China "curtailing press freedom" made by BBC World News, as well as a report titled “The Disinformation Dragon" by BBC Radio 4.
Holding a strong ideological bias in its China-related reports, the BBC has repeatedly hyped up false information on topics related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and COVID-19, and even fabricated fake news, an official in charge of the Information Department said.
China’s Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in the UK have also lodged solemn representations with the BBC and its Beijing bureau on many occasions.
However, the BBC, instead of correcting its mistakes, has gone even further to attack and smear China over topics related to Xinjiang, so-called "press freedom" and "false information," which has seriously misled the audience and seriously violated the principle of fairness and impartiality in news reporting.
“China expresses strong dissatisfaction with and firm opposition to such behavior,” the official said.
The official said that the BBC’s repeated false reports about China have been strongly opposed by the Chinese people, urging it to take China's solemn representations seriously, abandon its anti-China ideological bias and double standards, stop slandering, smearing and attacking China, and report on China in an objective, fair and balanced manner.
Previously, the Chinese Embassy in the UK refuted the false reports aired by BBC Radio 4 and strongly condemned its groundless accusations against China on issues related to COVID-19, diplomacy and other matters in a letter it issued to the channel on March 11.
In the letter, the spokesperson pointed out and dismissed five aspects that BBC Radio 4 falsely reported on in the report “The Disinformation Dragon,” regarding COVID-19 origin-tracing, Twitter's taking down of accounts attributed to China, Tiktok, internet security and "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy.