Officials criticize French journalist’s Xinjiang report

Paramilitary police officers patrol as Uighur men walk by in Urumqi, China’s western Xinjiang province.

Chinese officials yesterday accused a French journalist of political bias for her reporting on Beijing’s efforts to equate ethnic violence in the western Muslim region of Xinjiang with global terrorism.
In response to the Nov. 18 article by Ursula Gauthier in the French news magazine L’Obs, formerly Le Nouvel Observateur, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized Western media for using double standards in reporting the violence and said terrorism should not be considered ethnic violence in Xinjiang.
“Why is terrorism in other countries called terrorist actions, but it turns out to be ethnic and religious issues in China?” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing.
China blames much of the violence on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, although many international observers question if the group exists in any organized form.
Rights groups also have argued that the violence largely stems from economic marginalization of ethnic Uighurs and what is seen as suppression of their culture and religion.
Gauthier said yesterday that she was “standing by every word of my report.”
She said that some violent assaults involving Uighurs amounted to terrorism, but that they appeared to be homegrown with no evidence of having foreign ties.
Gauthier said her article focused on a deadly mine attack in a remote region of Xinjiang, which she described as more likely an act by Uighurs against mine workers of the majority ethnicity Han for what the Uighurs perceived as mistreatment, injustice and exploitation.
Chinese authorities had censored information on the September incident until after the terrorist attacks in Paris, when Chinese police announced they had killed all but one of the 29 people — described as terrorists — responsible for the mine attack.
The timing of the announcement drew concerns that Beijing was trying to ride public anger over terrorism to justify its hardline policies in Xinjiang.
The criticism of Gauthier from the foreign ministry followed earlier attacks in state media against her.
The nationalist newspaper Global Times said in a Nov. 20 editorial that Gauthier had “severely distorted the reality in Xinjiang” and said her prejudice against China was “appalling.”
Gauthier said the Global Times had twisted her article and made wild accusations. “They say I am anti-Chinese. I am not,” she said. “They say I am pro-terrorist, I am not.”
“It’s a very despicable form of journalism on the part of the Global Times,” she said.
Gauthier said she has yet to have her press credentials renewed by the Chinese foreign ministry for the coming year, whereas new press cards have been issued for most other foreign correspondents. AP