Why China finally banned the BBC, a racist British propaganda outlet

Written By: Maitreya Bhakal Published: 09/03/2021

In the old days, Britain would just send in a gunboat, Today, unfortunately, it has to make do with imperialist media propaganda.

China recently revoked the license of the BBC  -  after it refused to apologize for its racist reporting and for advocating violence against Chinese people. The BBC is a British state-owned, racist propaganda outlet that spreads lies and misinformation about China. It’s reporting on COVID-19 has been so racist, it is contributing to a significant rise in hate crimes against East Asian diaspora in the West.

Union Jacks

Like most British propaganda organs such as The Guardian and The Economist, BBC’s reporting on China is largely driven by the White Savior Complex. The way they see it, Chinese people can’t represent themselves, so they have to be represented by white people.

BBC’s China (mostly white male) correspondents consider themselves to be the saviors of the Chinese people, who apparently are crushed under the yoke of the brutal authoritarian communist regime. The Chinese people are innocent, stupid, incompetent - and cannot save themselves from their oppression. They need white, western men and culture to come and save them.

Skin Color Matters

The BBC’s coverage of terrorism, in particular, is largely determined by the skin color of the victims. When reporting on the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people, it initially called the terrorists “gunmen” and “suspected terrorists”. Yet, when attackers kill white people - such as during the July 2005 terror attacks in London - they are always simply “terrorists”.

In its coverage of the Kunming terror attacks in 2014, it largely sided with the attackers, portraying them as revolutionaries and dissidents who were revolting against China’s Islamophobic policies in Xinjiang - real or imagined. It described China’s counter-terrorism policies as a mere “security crackdown”, while largely supporting America’s counter-terrorism policies (the “War on Terror”) that have killed 1 million people and displaced 37 million so far.

Today lies about Xinjiang continue in the form of the much-ballyhooed “genocide” narrative – which is essentially a rehash of the old “Tibet Genocide” propaganda. China is apparently committing “genocide” in Xinjiang (or “cultural genocide”, depending on one’s mood). For example, western media claim, with little evidence, that China is “demolishing mosques” en masse in order to wipe out Islam. In truth, Xinjiang has about 24,400 mosques or one for every 530 Muslims. This is higher than the number of churches per Christian in England.

Full freedom  (To Follow The Party Line)

Western media outlets in China are not free and independent  -  and largely follow the US party line on most issues. Their reporting closely conforms to what the US wants to portray about China and Chinese people. Sometimes the coverage is flat-out lies and misinformation, and sometimes negative news is amplified and positive news is ignored.

For example, when a recent Harvard study showed that the Chinese government has a whopping 90% approval rating in China, the western media almost completely ignored it. When 70 nations at the UN recently released statements supporting China’s policies in Xinjiang and Hong Kong (with only 39 opposed), western newsrooms greeted the news with a collective yawn. Not to mention the conspiracy theories: “debt-trap diplomacy”, the virus’s apparent lab origins, the fantasy undercounting of China’s COVID-19 death toll, imaginary firings of COVID-19 whistleblowers…the list is endless.

Yet, such Sinophobic misinformation and consent manufacturing has had limited success  -  mostly only in western nations where people are already predisposed to Sinophobia. In the US and Australia for instance, negative attitudes towards China increased by 27 and 25 percent respectively in the last year. In “global south” nations, however, attitudes towards China are largely positive, despite heavy western propaganda. 

Enough is enough

Many in the West are used to looking at China as a subservient nation, in accordance with the orientalist stereotype of the Chinese as a submissive people. No matter how many lies and hatred they spread against China and violence they advocated against Chinese people  -  they thought China would take it all lying down.

China is certainly more patient than western nations. After all, its response to domestic terror attacks didn’t kill 1 million people and displaced 37 million  -  as America’s “War on Terror” did. Yet, a time comes when even the most patient nation has enough.

The Wall Street Journal is at the forefront of Sinophobia in the West. When it recently published an article openly calling China the “Sick Man of Asia”, reviving a centuries-old racist stereotype, China promptly ordered its three China correspondents to go packing. After the Trump regime kicked out about 60 Chinese journalists from the US, China revoked the visas of about a dozen US propagandists working for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and, The Washington Post.

Western nations believe in the rights of journalists - except when they don’t approve what they say, as with Julian Assange. They believe in freedom of the press - but only if they agree with what the press reports. UK officials recently banned CGTN’s broadcasts in the UK; they did not like its coverage. A few days later, China’s National Radio and Television Administration revoked the license of the BBC to broadcast in China, depriving Britain of its most important propaganda mouthpiece.

Expectedly, Britain threw a tantrum. The British Foreign Secretary called it an “unacceptable curtailing of media freedom”, which apparently CGTN’s ban in the UK was not. Britain believes that British state-owned outlets should be allowed to broadcast in China, but Chinese state-owned outlets should not be allowed to broadcast in Britain.

Some nations push back

Clearly, the days when China would simply tolerate western Sinophobic propaganda are over. The US is the worst serial human rights abuser and war criminal in the world  –  by all measures of evidence and an exponentially high margin. Yet, China is criticized exponentially more by western media, not to mention the lies and conspiracy theories.

China has nothing to gain from allowing known liars to broadcast freely in China. Freedom of the Press does not include the freedom to lie. Media propaganda and fake news are key vectors of America’s hybrid war on China, including the crackdown on Chinese media in the West and the selective application of press freedoms. Two can play that game.

Mango Press