China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian dubbed the corporation a "bad-mouthing broadcasting corporation" that had "attacked and vilified China, seriously deviating from journalistic standards" and a producer of "fake news." Zhao said the BBC deserved to be "unpopular" with the Chinese public. The BBC and other foreign journalists were then targeted by state journalists and other nationalists while on assignment in Henan, according to the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
"The youth division of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) published online death threats against foreign journalists covering the floods in central China's Henan province, triggering a wave of physical, verbal, and online harassment against them," RSF said in a statement on its website.
