French reporter should apologize, spokesman says

Ursula Gauthier should take the initiative to apologize to the Chinese public, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Wednesday.

Lu made the remarks during a regular news conference, when he was asked to comment on claims by the Beijing-based reporter for the French Magazine L'Obs that the Foreign Ministry contacted her three times asking her to make a public apology for a report she wrote.

"If she has a serious understanding of her own problem, Gauthier should take the initiative to make an apology, instead of waiting for anyone to come and ask her to do so," Lu said.

On Nov 18, a few days after the terrorist attacks in Paris, L'Obs published an article written by Gauthier in which she blamed China's policies in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region for terror attacks in China.

On Dec 26, the Foreign Ministry said she "did not make a serious apology to the Chinese public for her erroneous remarks, and is no longer suitable to continue working in China."

Gauthier also claimed she received anonymous death threats.

Lu responded and said it's not the first time that Gauthier made such claims, and the Chinese police, to his knowledge, have not received any relevant reports.

"If she seriously thinks she is threatened, she can report to the police instead of professing it to the media all day," he said.

According to Lu, Gauthier is the only one of the 611 journalists from over 300 foreign news agencies in China who didn't get an extension for her press credentials.

"Maybe she should examine herself," he said on Monday.