BREAKING: BBC banned from China after reporting on Uyghurs, handling of COVID

"China will not allow the broadcast of BBC World News in Chinese mainland after the broadcaster did a slew of falsified reporting on issues including #Xinjiang and China’s handling of #COVID19, a move experts said send clear signal that fake news is not tolerated in China," said the Global Times, the one of the Chinese Communist Party's main mouthpieces in English.

"BREAKING: BBC has been banned in China. The report said the BBC was responsible for a 'slew of falsified reporting' on issues including Xinjiang and China's handling of coronavirus. It went on to say that 'fake news' is not tolerated in China," commented the BBC's own Yalda Hakim.

The Chinese authorities have adopted a hostile stance to the BBC for some months now, starting with the illegal Chinese takeover of Hong Kong and the resulting security laws the CCP put in place there, which some critics claim are more censorious and intrusive than even the same laws in mainland China.

The latest controversy leading to the Chinese ban, however, had to do with reporting on the Xinjiang region, home to the country's Turkic minority Uyghur population. Evidence of egregious human rights abuses and forced labour are, in fact, overwhelming.

Also an issue for the Chinese government's is the BBC's reporting that China engaged in activities to cover up their role in the worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus.