BEIJING (CU)_The BBC’s correspondent in China has left Beijing and moved to Taiwan following threats from Chinese authorities. John Sudworth, who had been based in China for nine years, said it became increasingly difficult to remain in the East Asian nation and therefore moved to neighbouring Taiwan with his family.
While he had won awards for his reporting on Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang region, however China has denounced the broadcaster’s reporting of the matter. He wife Yvonne Murray, also reports on China for the Irish public broadcaster RTÉ.
“John’s reporting has exposed truths the Chinese authorities did not want the world to know,” BBC said, adding that the broadcaster is proud of his reporting, as he remains its China correspondent.
According to Sudworth, he and his team faced threats of legal action, intimidation and obstruction wherever they tried to film.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry claimed that the authorities had not been previously informed regarding his concerns.
“Only in recent days when we were faced with the task of renewing Sudworth’s press card did we learn that Sudworth left without saying goodbye. After he left the country, he didn’t by any means inform the relevant departments nor provide any reason why,” Hua Chunying said news conference in Beijing.
The number of international media outlets reporting from the East Asian nation is significantly shrinking, particularly following the expulsion of correspondents for the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal by Chinese officials last year.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) of China has expressed its concern that “foreign journalists are being caught up in diplomatic rows out of their control”, and has called for an end to “dangerous, personal attacks” on individual reporters and foreign media outlets.
“Abuse of Sudworth and his colleagues at the BBC forms part of a larger pattern of harassment and intimidation that obstructs the work of foreign correspondents in China and exposes their Chinese news assistants to growing pressure,” the organisation said in a statement posted on Twitter.
