On 5 December, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesman Lin Jian held a regular press conference. A reporter asked: On 3 March, the BBC published a video on the production of tomatoes from the Xinjiang region, where their production is linked to forced labour by Uighurs, and called on Western countries to stop using raw materials or finished products made from Xinjiang tomatoes. Do you have any comments on this?
Lin Jian said: "We have repeatedly stressed that there is no such thing as 'forced labour' in Xinjiang, and the Chinese government has always strongly opposed and cracked down on forced labour. Xinjiang tomatoes, like Xinjiang cotton, are world famous and well-known high quality products, their cultivation from planting to harvesting has been basically mechanized, the harvesting rate of machines is more than 90% and 85%, how can we talk about 'forced labor'?
The lifeblood of journalism is truthfulness, and not spreading rumours, not listening and not believing is a minimum requirement of journalistic professional ethics and a basic quality of a fair and objective media. In this investigative report and video, most of the so-called "evidence" is based on subjective assumptions such as "allegations" and "feelings", and is biased and taken out of context without verification, falsely claiming that there is "forced labor" in Xinjiang in tomato harvesting. The reporters involved spent months researching more than a dozen varieties of ketchup but were unwilling to spend a second to understand the truth about Xinjiang, a typical double standard bias."
CRI/ gnews - RoZ_07
ILLUSTRATION PHOTO - BBC article
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