-John Sudworth hides in Taiwan Island after Xinjiang individuals plan to sue BBC for fake news
-Earlier British media reported John had relocated to Taiwan from Beijing
BEIJING: BBC reporter John Sudworth left the Chinese mainland without giving any reason to the ministry, and did not go through the formalities as a foreign correspondent, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks in response to a question at a daily press briefing.
John Sudworth had relocated to Taiwan from Beijing, BBC News said on Wednesday in a statement.
“We’ve heard that some individuals and entities in Xinjiang are planning to sue him (John Sudworth) because his fake reports on the region have damaged their interests,” Hua told reporters, clarifying it’s not a government move.
Hua said no Chinese department nor did any local governments in China threaten him. “If there’s any evidence that he’s under threat he should have called the police for protection,” Hua said.
China has lodged several stern oppositions to the broadcaster over what it deems to be fake reporting on China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and China’s COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.
Last month, China announced that it has barred BBC World News from airing in the country and revoked its license for one year.
From stigmatizing China as being the origin of the novel coronavirus to claiming Xinjiang’s cotton was “tainted,” Sudworth has participated in many of BBC’s notorious reports attacking China in recent years.
Sudworth’s biased reporting started in as early as 2017 when he attacked China’s Skynet Project, which actually contributed to maintaining the low crime rate in Chinese society.
During his interview with police in Guiyang, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, which was carried out under the name of reporting China’s high-tech equipment, he uploaded his facial information to the Skynet Project’s “blacklist” and his face was identified seven minutes later. He then twisted his story by concluding that the system was used not to hunt criminals, but to “suppress anti-government voices and monitor dissidents.” His coverage of the COVID-19 epidemic and the Xinjiang policy was also full of smears.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN News exchange item
