Unusual: Chinese official television invented a fake French journalist who defends the regime against accusations of genocide against the Uyghurs

On Sunday March 28, the website of the Chinese state television channel CGTN, formerly CCTV-News, published an article signed by the French journalist.to Laurène Beaumond.

However, the French newspaper The world denounced that after having carried out an investigation, the named journalist does not exist.

According to the CGTN, the alleged Laurène Beaumond is double degree in art history and archeology from the historic University of Paris, the Sorbonne, one of the oldest in the world. He also completed a master’s degree in journalism and then worked in various Parisian editorial offices before settling in Beijing.

In France, a large part (but not all) of the body of journalists is registered with a professional commission which issues each year an official press card with a personal registration number. According to The world there is no one by the name of Laurène Beaumond in the commission’s database.

In addition no one seems to know of an information professional with that name, despite the fact that CGTN claims to have worked in various media before traveling to China.

The opinion piece published by the CGTN de Beaumond seeks to refute accusations against China of “genocide against the Uyghur Muslim majority” in China’s Xinjiang region.

According to studies published by institutes in the United States and Australia and rejected by Beijing, there are at least one million Uyghurs interned in “camps” in Xinjiang, in northwest China, where some ‘among them are subjected to “forced labor” and “sterilization”. . “.

Beaumond, who is said to have lived in China for seven years, also claims to have relatives living in Urumchi, the capital of Xinjiang. “I had the opportunity to visit the region many times between 2014 and 2019, and I don’t recognize Xinjiang that they describe to me in the one I know,” he said.

According to The world, Beaumond’s opinion on the Uyghurs takes up all the elements of the official language of the Beijing regime on the subject, questioning the “new flowers of passion. [sic] of the Uyghur cause, this ethnic group whose fate concerned no one until now “, and emphasizing that “The big foreign brands that have announced that they will stop using cotton harvested in Xinjiang to make their clothes are the last straw.”

This new face put at the service of Chinese propaganda says The world, was also discovered by a researcher from the Foundation for Strategic Research, Antoine Bondaz. The false profile has appeared since the end of 2020, on subjects like Covid-19, noted Bondaz.

Originally posted by RFI

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