On the first day of the Chinese New Year (Feb. 12), the Communist Party’s State Administration of Radio and Television (SARFT) issued a statement banning the BBC World News from China for “harming China’s national interests,” after the BBC angered the Chinese Communist Party with its coverage of a virus Epidemic and persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang. However, the Communist Party’s claim that foreign media were banned from landing in China was met with ridicule. Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School, laughed and said: “When has the BBC ever landed in China? Maybe in Zhongnanhai?
The General Administration of Radio and Television of the Communist Party of China declared that the content of BBC World News’ China-related reports “seriously violates the Regulations on Radio and Television Administration” and the “Measures for the Administration of Landing Overseas Satellite TV Channels” and does not meet the conditions for landing foreign channels in China, and the authorities decided not to allow BBC World News to continue broadcasting in China. The authorities decided not to allow BBC World News to continue to broadcast in China and not to accept its application for landing in the new year.
On the same day, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) announced that it would not allow BBC World News to broadcast in China and would not accept its application for new year’s landing according to the State Administration of Radio and Television. RTHK will no longer broadcast BBC World News and BBC One Week from 11pm today (12).
The BBC World News television channel is broadcast in English worldwide. In China, the BBC is heavily restricted to international hotels and some diplomatic residences, which means that most Chinese people do not see the BBC’s programming.
The Chinese Communist Party prohibits private citizens from installing satellite receivers that can receive foreign programs, and the general public cannot watch foreign news channels such as the BBC and NTDTV at Home.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb tweeted that China “has imposed the most severe restrictions on media and internet freedom in the world and this latest move will only damage China’s reputation around the world”.
Interestingly, the Communist Party’s official statement banning the BBC from landing in China did not mention that it was originally landed in Hong Kong under the so-called “one country, two systems,” which some netizens took as an opportunity to express their sarcasm.
Netizen ZHANGDONG: “When has the BBC ever landed in China? The BBC has never been on the ground, so why not? What a joke! Hong Kong was once an exception, but today it is also off the air, and on February 12, 2021, the first day of the Chinese New Year, the BBC bids farewell to Hong Kong.”
Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, also said, “Joke! Maybe in Zhongnanhai? Hong Kong’s Phoenix Satellite Television, known internally as the Communist Party’s foreign propaganda in Hong Kong, has landed inside the Central Party School. Phoenix to disguise, of course, must broadcast outside the walls of the news, leading the party school people to watch Phoenix every day, and then Phoenix was cancelled in the party school. Even the party media big foreign propaganda are afraid to internal landing, why come BBC public landing ever? Fussily lie, but also face?”
Since the implementation of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law last year, all signs have led the outside world to believe that Hong Kong has been reduced to a province under the Chinese Communist Party. This Time, the BBC’s farewell to Hong Kong has become a new example.
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