China Blasts BBC Again For 'biased Reporting'

China is complaining anew about recent reporting by the BBC, days after summoning the British ambassador to Beijing to register displeasure over a recent article she penned defending press freedom.

The Chinese Embassy in London posted a statement on its website Thursday saying it had written 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 did not imply hatred or disrespect for the country 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 such as the coronavirus outbreak and abuses against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, and the British governments decision to open a pathway for residency and eventual citizenship for millions of Hong Kong residents.

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

RTHK's former director of broadcasting, Leung Ka-wing, followed Beijing's lead, taking BBC radio off the air in Hong Kong.

In its letter, the Chinese Embassy singled out a BBC Radio 4 report titled “The Disinformation Dragon” that aired on Tuesday.

The report made “groundless accusations against China on issues related to, among others, information, COVID-19 and diplomacy."

“China has always been a country of propriety and deeply values harmony. We have never been the one that starts provocations and have no intention to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries. It is the others who keep meddling in our domestic affairs and smearing China," the letter said. (AP)