Chinese Ambassador to U.K. Rips Media Lies, Especially BBC

Aug. 1, 2020 (EIRNS)—Liu Xiaoming, the outspoken Chinese Ambassador to the U.K., who has been there for ten years, held a virtual press conference on July 30 in which he blasted the multiple lies being used to attack China, hitting especially at Andrew Marr, the disgusting BBC interview specialist, who was insulting in interview with Liu last week (and acted similarly in one with Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin). Liu also warned the U.K. that their break from China will harm Britain more than it will China, that cutting off Huawei is “cutting the U.K. off from growth and progress,” and assuring that the U.K. will not be a leader in 5G.

Ambassador Liu said this was the fifth anniversary of the U.K.-China “Golden Era,” declared by then-Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in 2015, but that rather than celebrating, the relations are collapsing. “China has not changed,” he said. “It is the U.K. which has changed.” He said the U.K. is directly interfering into the internal affairs of China, breaking the UN Charter on several counts. He named four lies:

First, the “lie of the century”: China locked up 1 million Uighurs in Xinjiang. He pointed out that in October 2019, during the UN General Assembly 60 countries supported China’s approach to countering terrorism in Xinjiang, through education and job training, while in July 2020, some 46 countries at the UN Human Rights Council did the same. He reviewed the fact (publicized by the investigative journalism site, “GrayZone”) that the author of the story of a “million Uighurs locked up” was Adrian Zenz, a German evangelical lunatic who “believes he has been sent by God to confront China.” Liu showed videos of the Xinjiang terrorist attacks from several years ago, and showed the classrooms at the schools set up for the youth, and multiple interviews with the graduates of the training. Andrew Marr had shown a video allegedly of “hundreds of Uighurs blindfolded and kneeling,” as if being suppressed. Liu countered that these were prison inmates being transferred, “a normal judicial process, nothing to do with Uighurs,” and that they were not kneeling, while over half the group were guards.

Second, the “destruction of mosques”: Liu showed the satellite photos displayed by Western media of ancient mosques “before and after” their destruction—but then Liu showed the modern, new mosques that were built to replaced the old ones, which, of course, the Western media neglected report in their coverage. “There are 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, one for every 530 Muslims, which is greater than the number of churches per Christian in the U.K.,” Liu reported.

Third, Marr had shown a video of a Uighur woman claiming she had been forcibly sterilized. Ambassador Liu then showed a video with the woman’s sister and brother telling her she should stop lying, that she had had an operation after a problem with her third child’s birth, that her husband had signed for it. He said that the Uighur population had been given special exemptions (with other ethnic minorities) from the restriction on the number of children per family, and that the Uighur population had doubled.

Fourth, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, “funded by the Australian and U.S. governments,” had issued a report that Uighurs were being subjected to “forced labor” in Communist Party factories far from Xinjiang. Liu explained that these were not forced, but the youth coming out of the training centers were offered jobs around the country at higher wages, voluntarily, and showed video interviews with several on how they were saving money before returning home.

“You should visit, to see the sustained economic growth, the flourishing culture. Rumors will not write off China’s progress in safeguarding human rights in Xinjiang, nor disrupt the progress in Xinjiang. I hope the British media will discard their arrogance and prejudice and cover Xinjiang in an objective and fair manner.”

Ambassador Liu answered hostile questions on Hong Kong, the security law, and Huawei forcefully and with emotion. The attacks on Huawei, he said, were not meant to attack an individual company, but to attack China. “Either you will treat China as a friend or as an adversary—if the latter, you will suffer the consequences of losing out on China’s growth and friendships around the world.”

He pointed out that he had written an article on Xinjiang, and an earlier one on Hong Kong, which “every major U.K. newspaper refused to print.” Both were then printed in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.