Top UK diplomat to Beijing summoned over ‘inappropriate’ article

The UK’s envoy to China is under fire following an article she wrote on Chinese social media last week defending the role of an independent foreign press as a “watchdog,” adding that criticism levelled by the foreign press in relation to Chinese authorities does not imply that the press dislikes China.
A principal official of the European Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday summoned UK’s top diplomat to China Caroline Wilson, lodging solemn representations over her “inappropriate” signed article on social media, Xinhua reported.
Wilson, the former British Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau, wrote the article last week, which defends recent international media coverage on China amid the UK-China tensions on recent issues including Hong Kong, Xinjiang and the media.
“The whole article is full of ‘lecturer’ arrogance and ideological prejudice […] and is seriously inconsistent with the status of diplomats and the functions of diplomatic institutions,” the principal official at the foreign affairs ministry said.
The official also remarked that the article had caused widespread dissatisfaction among the Chinese public and was strongly criticized immediately after it had been published, decrying the article as “propaganda.”
On Tuesday, the British diplomat issued a statement on her Twitter account saying, “I stand by my article. No doubt the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to the UK stands by the 170+ pieces he was free to place in mainstream British media.”
She was referring to China’s departing ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, who wrote over 170 articles for UK news publications in his 11 years at the post.
These includes op-eds defending the controversial Huawei 5G network in the Telegraph.
In Wilson’s article, the UK envoy explained that foreign media criticizing the Chinese authorities does not mean that they do not like China.
“On the contrary, I think they act in good faith and play an active role as a watchdog over government actions, ensuring that people have access to accurate information, and protecting those who have no voice,” she wrote in the article.
The ministry noted that the Chinese government and people have never opposed foreign media, but those who wrongly create fake news under the banner of “freedom of the press” and “freedom of speech” and maliciously attack China, the Communist Party of China, and the Chinese system. Although the article is still available on the WeChat platform, the “share” option of the article has been blocked.