Why Does the Well-known BBC Become the CCP’s Accomplice?

by Huang Xia

(from Hong Kong, China)

For many years, in the hearts of the people of all countries, the BBC, for taking not fearing power, upholding impartiality, reporting the truth of the fact objectively, respecting religious belief, and so on, as its aim, is judged one of the media most respected worldwide. But on August 14, 2014, a report in the BBC Chinese website greatly disappoints many net friends who deeply trust the BBC. Particularly, some parts in this article that are not objective make the sensible net friends begin to red light the trust towards the BBC.

As the Christians of the Church of Almighty God, we are shocked by this report of the BBC even more greatly. Next let’s look at the problems in this report together.

I. The title of this article is “A Report on the Spot: The Chinese Cult that Kills ‘Demons.’” Before writing this article, has the author Carrie really made an on-the-spot investigation in the Church of Almighty God? If not, how much can this article be trusted? We believers in God mainly strive to have our life disposition transformed through reading Almighty God’s word and understanding the truth. God requires us to have conscience and sense in our living out, to be forbearing, patient, and tolerant, and so on, and in the end to live out the likeness of a real man. Whether others are “demons” or not is not the subject of our life entering in and it has nothing to do with us. So, with us there is not such an absurd saying of “killing demons.” But the two men mentioned in the article both say that

the believers in Almighty God are “killing demons.” This runs counter to God’s teaching to us. I would like to ask the author these questions: When you published this article, have you learned the purpose of our believing in God in the Church of Almighty God? Have you ever contacted the Christians of the Church of Almighty God? Have you made a practical research about what Zhang Lidong and Wang Jiannan said? If your answers to all these questions are “no,” is it suitable for you to use “a report on the spot” in the article? Such an act of the BBC has not only gone against the tenet of being objective and impartial in managing its media, which it had always upheld, but it is a very irresponsible act to the public.

II. In this report, except for Zhang Lidong known to all, who is the leading role in the “5/28 Zhaoyuan Incident,” through which the CCP wantonly defames and frames the Church of Almighty God, there appears another so-called victim named Wang Jiannan who gives some “evidence.” Yet those who are careful will find that in the report, only Wang Jiannan himself speaks from beginning to end, without any concrete evidence at all. In the report, Wang firmly says that his sister and mother are members of the Church of Almighty God. According to the independent reporting style of the BBC, why hasn’t it gone to check with Wang’s sister since she is in prison? Besides, he says that they have believed for about 20 years; yet she killed her father on the excuse of “killing a demon.” This is completely contrary to the word of Almighty God. Then their identities are suspect. So, only with a picture of a man’s mourning for the dead before a grave, it plants all the problems on the Church of Almighty God. Is this convincing? According to the author’s reasoning, shouldn’t it be concluded that the suffering of all those who mourn before graves is caused by the “killing demons” of the Church of Almighty God? Is such evidence tenable? The BBC says in its tenet of “trust”:  “Trust is the foundation of the BBC: We are independent, impartial and honest. We are committed to achieving the highest standards of due accuracy and impartiality and strive to avoid knowingly or materially misleading our audiences.” Then is the BBC’s deed keeping the promise of striving to achieve accuracy in reporting? Or is it upholding its tenet of not misleading its audiences?

III. We are perplexed about the two video screenshots quoted in the article. We all know that to learn about the content of an article or a film, we should at least read this article or watch this film, and then we can give our opinions. However, in this report, it only selects and quotes two screenshots from the two films of the Church of Almighty God, and it adds its own opinions and comments about them without respecting the original purposes of the authors and the Church of Almighty God to make these two films. Moreover, it misleads people onto a pathway contrary to the original intentions of the film makers. Such misleading doesn’t respect the fact, much less care about the public feelings. The BBC says in its tenet of “Serving the Public Interests”: “We seek to report stories of significance to our audiences. We will be rigorous in establishing the truth of the story and well informed when explaining it.” This report of the BBC not only hasn’t served the public interests or reported the fact, but on the contrary it has brought loss to the public interests: Before watching the films, they have been infused with a wrong viewpoint. Isn’t this thoughtless and improper? Besides, as to whether the viewpoints in the article are accordant with the facts, the public can draw a conclusion only after making an investigation themselves. If the BBC really upholds the tenet of “transparency” it claims, shouldn’t it publish the links of these two films on the Internet and let the public judge them themselves, only which can be said to be transparent?

Many people in the world know that the CCP government cruelly maltreats dissidents: In the world-shocking “6/4 Incident” in 1989, the CCP used tanks and machine guns to suppress the defenseless students who sat in the Tiananmen Square petitioning for democracy; in the Tibet issue, in order to maintain its dictatorship the CCP created false cases and slaughtered the Tibetan people bloodily, and all at once the blood flowed like rivers in the Tibet. Now, in China so many people have no way to live because their houses are forcibly torn down by the CCP, and when they petition with grievances, they are arrested and put in prison and secretly killed; and so many believers in Almighty God are imprisoned illegally by the CCP and are maimed or killed; … As a western mainstream media, you should see that not only the people in the whole Mainland China are disclosing the CCP, but the people of various countries and the media in the West have all seen the cruelty of the CCP’s fighting the dissidents and especially persecuting the religion. It’s no wonder that the western democratic countries call China a country in the axis of evil. Under the ruling of the CCP, the Chinese people have no human rights at all. As for such an evil party, haven’t you, the BBC, seen it through? An agency who bears the glory and image of Britain and its people actually turns into the CCP’s mouthpiece and speaks for it at such a time. We are greatly shocked by it! BBC, what qualification do you have to stand as a star in the ranks of impartial media of the world?

Why does the BBC, even in a matter that everyone with a discerning eye can see through, go against its aim of managing the media and speak against the fact? Is it motivated by money or forced by power? Is the BBC a media or a ruling party? In June this year, Li Keqiang, the Chinese premier, paid a sudden visit to Britain and signed commercial contracts with Britain worth 14 billion pounds. This makes it very natural for people to link that with this BBC report. The BBC, a media widely recognized by the world and deeply respected by its fellows, actually discards the dignity of speaking the truth for the sake of money and interests, which is really incredible! We can only say this with sadness: BBC, you have lost your former aura of an “impartial” media.

EasternLightning | TheChurch of Almighty God came into being because of the work of the returned Lord Jesus—the end-time Christ, “AlmightyGod”—in China, and it isn’t established by any person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. After reading God’s word, you will see that God has appeared.