China's foreign minister Wang Yi highly criticized an IPolitics reporter on June 1, Wednesday, after the latter asked questions pertaining to China's human rights records. The China's FM called out the reporter's question as unacceptable and irresponsible during his recent visit to Ottawa, Canada.
Wang met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Minister Of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion to discuss sensitive topics, including trade to human rights issues. In the press conference with the Canadian media, online news site IPolitics reporter Amanda Connolly asked questions to Dion about the case of Canadian Kevin Garratt, who was held in China for espionage and stealing state secrets.
"I want to respond to the question from this reporter about China. I have to say that your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance where I have heard that come from and this is totally unacceptable," IPolitics quoted Wang as saying.
Wang continued claiming that there were no other people who could talk about the human rights condition in China except the Chinese people. The China's FM also condemned the reporter's manner of asking questions by calling it irresponsible and claimed that they did not appreciate unwarranted accusations.
The controversial response of Wang was exactly the opposite to Chinese President Xi Jinping statement when he was asked a similar question by a British reporter during his visit in London in 2015. Jinping admitted that China has a room for improvement in terms of human rights.
The visit of China's FM in Canada was deemed as a significant event to refresh the bilateral relations between the two nations. A free-trade deal is reportedly on board for Ottawa and China.
The ties between Canada and China have gone sour after Garratt was detained in 2014 over espionage charges, according to Yahoo! News. His wife was also held and was out on a bail.
China has been facing scrutiny since the nation faced political tightening under the governance of Xi. The freedom of speech was highly restricted where bloggers, reporters, activists and journalists were harassed and detained.
Watch Wang's reply during the press conference in Ottawa on June 1, Wednesday: