Air China anger over ‘racist’ article
Print Edition
AIR China has removed copies of its inflight magazine containing an article criticized as racist for telling visitors to take precautions when visiting areas of London with large ethnic-minority populations.
In an e-mail to The Associated Press, the state-owned airline said the September issue of “Wings of China” used “inappropriate” language and the article didn’t represent its views.
“After discovering this problem, Air China immediately removed this magazine from all flights and demanded that the publishers of ‘Wings of China’ seriously learn from this lesson, strengthen their content review and avoid making similar mistakes,” the airline said.
It also forwarded an e-mail from the magazine’s publisher apologizing to Air China and saying the fault lay with an “editing mistake.”
The original article in English read: “London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people.” It also advised tourists not to go out alone at night, and for women not to travel alone.
British lawmaker Vivendra Sharma, who represents a diverse London district, said he had written to China’s ambassador to Britain on Wednesday to demand an apology for the “blatantly untrue and racist statements.”
In the apology to Air China, China Aviation Media Co Ltd said the article ran “counter to our original intention to promote the beautiful scenes of London.”
“It has brought about misunderstanding from some media outlets and readers and also a huge negative impact on your company’s business operations and image. We deeply apologize for that,” its statement read.
But on Chinese social media, most commenters expressed bafflement at the backlash.
In a common refrain, one user of China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform asked: “This is just stating the truth — what is there to apologize about?”
Another queried: “There are more rapists and robbers there anyway — why is saying this discriminatory?”
Many said they felt the advice was valuable.
“We can’t satisfy everyone, but we certainly must put Chinese people’s safety first,” one user stated.
Discussion and public awareness of racism in China is low — sometimes resulting in viral scandals that spark global outrage but cause little concern within the mainland.
It’s not the first time Chinese businesses have been criticized for being tone-deaf over issues of race and ethnicity.
Earlier this year, a Chinese laundry detergent maker apologized “for the harm caused to the African people” over a TV advertisement that showed a black man being stuffed into a washing machine and coming out a fair-skinned Asian man.
Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd Co said it strongly condemned racial discrimination but blamed foreign media for playing up the controversy.
Asked about the magazine’s London travel advice, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the government only issues tourist alerts to people “traveling to high risk areas like war zones.”
The Chinese government “resolutely opposes all forms of racial discrimination,” she said.
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