China’s legislature OKs controversial anti-terrorism law

A state-run media outlet ran a scathing editorial denouncing Gauthier, and today, according to The New York Times, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said they’re expelling her from the country.

China’s foreign ministry last week said her essay in French news magazine L’Obs “flagrantly championed acts of terrorism and acts of cruelly killing innocents”.

Gauthier’s credentials are set to expire on December 31 and non-renewal of the same would amount to her de facto expulsion from the country.

It said an article she wrote about the unrest in Xinjiang supported “terrorism and cruel acts” that had killed people.

Gauthier’s combative article, which was published last month after the 13 November terrorist attacks in Paris, questioned the Communist party’s policies in Xinjiang, a troubled and resource-rich region in China’s far-west that is home to the largely Muslim Uighur minority.

Gauthier is the first foreign journalist to be booted from China since 2012, when Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan was forced to leave after doing a series of stories on secret prisons.

The Chinese government has been criticised after a decision was made to remove the press credentials of a French journalist who refused to apologise for an article.

“France would like to remind how important it is for journalists to be able to work everywhere in the world”, the statement read.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he was “dissatisfied” with the USA position and hoped they respected China’s law-making process and did not adopt “double standards”.

Beijing supported press qualifications would not be renewed by it for Ursula Gauthier, of the French news magazine L’Obs. “It’s only meant to deter foreign correspondents in the future in Beijing”.

China’s infringement of freedom of speech and the hard line it takes on those opposing the government is well-recorded.

Chinese officials say their country faces a growing threat from militants and separatists, especially in its unruly Western region of Xinjiang, where hundreds have died in violence in the past few years.

In the article, published Nov. 18, Gauthier suggested Chinese authorities are manipulating its citizens’ emotional connection to Paris and the victims of November’s attacks to fuel anti-Uighur sentiments.

“The Chinese press itself has been totally muzzled”, she said.

Uighurs in Xinjiang have long complained of state repression, accusing the government of restricting their ability to practise their religion, and encouraging Han Chinese immigration to the province to decrease their share of the population.

Li, a criminal law expert, said the antiterrorism law included a requirement that telecommunication and Internet service providers “shall provide technical interfaces, decryption and other technical support and assistance to public security and state security agencies when they are following the law to avert and investigate terrorist activities”.