A French reporter forced to leave China after she was accused of supporting terrorism for criticizing government policy in violence-wracked, mainly Muslim Xinjiang, was preparing to leave yesterday.
Beijing refused to renew the credentials of Ursula Gauthier, the China correspondent for France’s L’Obs news magazine, after she wrote an article questioning official comparisons between global terrorism and the unrest in the homeland of the Uighur ethnic minority.
Gauthier had “a very strong feeling of surreality” on her final day in Beijing, she said as she carried out her final packing and finished an article ahead of going to the airport for a late-night flight before her visa expired.
“Everything which happened was so quick and strange,” she added.
In her story, Gauthier questioned China’s motives in expressing sympathy for the victims of the Nov. 13 Paris terror attacks, writing that they were calculated to tie Beijing’s harsh policies in Xinjiang into the fight against global terrorism.
The veteran reporter, who has spent years in China, suggested that violence by Uighurs against civilians in the region — where clashes have killed hundreds in the past few years — was in part driven by resentment of government policies.
“I didn’t write that I supported terrorism, I never supported terrorism in my article,” Gauthier said. “I was simply explaining that the Uighurs’ anger came from somewhere, just like we can explain the origin of the anger of young Arabs who become radicalized, there are roots to it.”
Gauthier views her treatment as an attempt “to intimidate foreign correspondents in China, particularly on issues concerning minorities, especially in Tibet and Xinjiang.”
Chinese media and officials heavily criticized her article, with the Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Global Times saying it “severely distorted the reality in Xinjiang” and represented a “double standard” on terrorism.
The journalist said her home address was posted online alongside death threats from angry readers.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said she “flagrantly championed acts of terrorism... triggering the Chinese people’s outrage.”
Foreign correspondents’ visas in China are tied to their official credentials, so the ministry’s refusal to renew her press card meant her right to remain in the nation expired yesterday.
The decision to effectively expel Gauthier has been widely criticized by press freedom groups, such as Reporters Without Borders.
“The government is yet again putting pressure on journalists who criticize its policies,” the organization said in a statement last week.
“This is an unacceptable attack on freedom of information and creates a real obstacle for journalism in China,” L’Obs director Matthieu Croissandeau said.
France said that the denial of a visa was “regrettable.”
Le Monde in an article signed by editors and reporters from multiple French media outlets said the expulsion was “unjustifiable,” calling on the French government to make a stronger protest.
France’s current focus on improving economic ties with China “guaranteed in a way that Paris would allow Ms Gauthier to be expelled without making too much of a fuss,” it said. “The lack of firmness of the French authorities is irresponsible.”
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS