‘We won’t be silent’ while others smear us, Beijing official vows amid furore over US newspaper headline deemed racist
- Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian was speaking a week after Beijing expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters over an opinion piece in the newspaper
- He was hosting his first media briefing as deputy director of the ministry’s information office
China won’t be a nation of “silent lambs in the face of malicious insults and smearing”, a spokesman with the country’s foreign ministry vowed on Monday, as Beijing continued to lash out at The Wall Street Journal over a commentary it has deemed racist.
Zhao Lijian, a former senior diplomat in Pakistan, made the remarks while hosting his first press conference since being named deputy director of the Chinese foreign ministry’s information office in August.
His comments came a week after Beijing expelled three reporters with the New York-based newspaper over an opinion piece headlined “China is the real sick man of Asia”. The headline triggered condemnation among Chinese internet users, saying it was derogatory and stereotyped Chinese people as disease-ridden and unclean.
“The Journal has fudged the issue and dodged responsibility with the excuse of independence between news coverage and opinions,” Zhao said in the first face-to-face briefing since the coronavirus outbreak forced conferences to be shifted online three weeks ago.