China blasts BBC report after summoning UK ambassador

China has slammed a BBC report, days after summoning the British ambassador to Beijing to join up displeasure over a recently available article she penned defending press freedom.

The Chinese embassy in London posted a statement on its website on Thursday (Mar 11) saying it wrote to the BBC expressing “strong dissatisfaction" and urging the broadcaster to “abandon bias, correct its mistake and report China in a objective, fair and balanced manner".

On Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry summoned Ambassador Caroline Wilson over her article posted on the embassy’s Chinese microblog in which she said critical reporting of China didn't imply hatred or disrespect for the united states itself. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday said Wilson’s article reflected her “deep-rooted ideological prejudices”.

The criticism reflects deep Chinese anger both over the BBC's reporting on sensitive issues including the coronavirus outbreak and abuses against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, and the British government's decision to open a pathway for residency and eventual citizenship for millions of Hong Kong residents.

China last month banned the BBC from the tiny number of hotels, residential compounds and offices where it had been shown, in apparent retaliation because of its reporting on China and Britain's revocation of the licence of state-owned Chinese broadcaster CGTN.

Britain has condemned a Chinese crackdown on civil liberties in the former British colony of Hong Kong which has gathered pace with the imposition this past year of a sweeping national security law and the Chinese parliament's moves to remove even the likelihood of government critics running for office in the semi-autonomous city.

Scores of activists have already been rounded up and accused of violating regulations, while free speech and assembly have been severely curtailed, seemingly betraying China's commitment to permit Hong Kong to retain its social, political and legal systems for 50 years following the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.

In its letter, the Chinese Embassy designated a BBC Radio 4 report titled The Disinformation Dragon that aired on Tuesday. The report made “groundless accusations against China on issues related to, amongst others, information, COVID-19 and diplomacy".

“China is definitely a country of propriety and deeply values harmony. We have never been the the one that starts provocations and also have no intention to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries. It's the other people who keep meddling in our domestic affairs and smearing China," the letter said.

In his criticism of Wilson's article, Zhao said China had stated to her its “solemn position on the relevant issue".

“Ambassador Wilson’s article, with a confused logic, avoids all of the facts, like the British media’s disinformation and false reporting on China," Zhao said.

He accused Wilson of ignoring the alleged suppression of Chinese media in the West and of praising "the so-called Western experience within an arrogant tone" and making “irresponsible remarks about China’s system and media".

Wilson responded on Twitter, writing: “I stand by my article. No doubt the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to the UK stands by the 170+ pieces he was absolve to place in mainstream British media."