Unusual: Official Chinese television has invented a fake French journalist defending the regime against allegations of genocide against the Uyghurs

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

The French newspaper, however The world denounced that after an investigation, The journalist mentioned does not exist.

According to the CGTN, the alleged Laurène is Beaumond Double degree in art history and archeology from the historical university of Paris, the Sorbonne, one of the oldest in the world. He also completed a Masters in Journalism to later work in various Paris newsrooms before moving to Beijing.

In France, a large part (but not all) of the journalists’ corps is registered with a specialized commission which annually issues an official press card with a personal registration number. According to The world There is no one named Laurène Beaumond in the Commission’s database.

What is more nobody seems to know a professional by that name, despite the fact that CGTN claims he worked in various media outlets before traveling to China.

The opinion text published by Beaumonds CGTN tries to refute allegations against China of “genocide of the Muslim-majority Uyghurs” in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The news in Le Monde newspaper said that Chinese television invented a suspected French journalist

According to studies published by institutes in the US and Australia and rejected by Beijing, at least one million Uyghurs are detained in “camps” in Xinjiang, northwest China, where some of them are subjected to “forced labor” and “sterilization”. ”.

Beaumond, who reportedly lived in China for seven years, also claims to have relatives in Urumchi, capital of Xinjiang. “I have had the opportunity to visit the region many times between 2014 and 2019, and I do not recognize the Xinjiang they describe to me in what I know,” he says.

According to The world, Beaumond’s opinion on the Uyghurs echoes all elements of the Beijing regime’s official language on the subject and questions the “new passion flowers” [sic] of the Uighur cause, that ethnic group whose fate has not yet affected anyone “and point it out “The big overseas brands that have announced that they will no longer use the cotton harvested in Xinjiang to make their garments are the last straw.”

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

The Uighur massacre: Why China ethnically cleanses the Muslim minority