The French media Le Monde revealed on the 31st that China had fabricated the identity of a fake journalist, “Bo Meng”, to disseminate information, which seemed to reveal the operation, causing an outcry. (Photo taken from twitter.com/EsperaAd)
On March 28, an independent French journalist, Laurène Beaumond, published the article “My Xinjiang: Stop the Fake News Tyranny” on the website of China’s official media, China Global Television Network (CGTN). The article is in line with the views of the Chinese official media, and dispels the accusations of ethnic cleansing and persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang based on what he has seen and heard.
But Le Monde recently checked with the database of the French Professional Press Council, which issues press cards, and found no information on the journalist, who “has worked for several newspapers in Paris. FranceInfo and other media reported that Bo Meng’s Twitter account was created in March this year, and his mugshot was also taken from an online gallery.
According to a transcript on the official website of the Chinese Communist Party’s Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying said at a regular press conference yesterday that she had checked with CGTN to confirm Bo Meng’s identity and that “the French national is an independent writer who has lived in mainland China for many years and has visited Xinjiang several times.
Hua also said that Bo Meng’s article recorded what she saw and heard in Xinjiang and the facts, and that “the relevant views are objective and fair”.
However, she said she was not at liberty to disclose the details of Bo’s article because “in some European and American countries, anyone who speaks out against the Chinese Communist Party will be maliciously attacked.
Hua also said, “Individual Western countries and the media have a habit of thinking that as long as the Western journalists will not say good things about the Chinese Communist Party, if a foreign journalist reports on China is different from many Western media reports, he must not be a Western journalist, and may even be China for false propaganda.”
Hua Chunying concluded by saying, “This ‘indiscriminate labeling and clubbing’ thinking is very unhealthy.”
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