Chinese Embassy in Sweden blasts TV show over racism

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The Chinese Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday criticized Sweden's largest television station, Sveriges Television AB Sweden's Television (SVT), saying it had insulted China in a program.

In an episode of “Sweden News” aired on Friday, the host presented an incorrect map of China and made jokes about the Chinese family who had claimed to have been mistreated by the police in Sweden during a trip to Stockholm.

The program then uploaded a segment under the name of Sweden Official Channel on Youku, a popular Chinese video website and titled with “Welcome to Sweden."

“The SVT broadcast a Swedish news program which outrageously insulted China. The program leader Jesper Ronndahl made comments that amount to a gross insult to and a vicious attack on China and the Chinese people. We strongly condemn it, and have lodged a strong protest to SVT," the Chinese embassy said through its spokesperson on Saturday.

"The program also referred to a wrong map of China where China's Taiwan province and some parts of the Tibet region were missing, which severely infringes on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the embassy added.

In the show, the anchor also made a joke and said the way the tourist screamed “help” sounded more like “kill me now” in English.

In the show, the anchor also made a joke and said the way the tourist screamed “help” sounded more like “kill me now” in English. /screenshot from the program.

Then, the program mentioned the disparity between China and Sweden dubbed in Chinese and captioned in Swedish.

Screenshot from the video on Youku.

"The program breaks the basic moral principles of mankind, and gravely challenges human conscience and is a serious violation of media professional ethics. To think that such things could happen in Sweden, an advocate of ethnic equality!" the embassy said.

Thomas Hall, a staff member of the show, then said the program was just an entertainment program.

“We will not apologize,” Hall said. “We did nothing wrong.”

The video soon went viral on social media in China and prompted a backlash, with users condemning what they said was racism against Chinese as well as the incorrect maps shown in the program.

“It is shocking to see such a vulgar taste in a national media platform,” CCTV news, the state broadcaster, said in its editorial opinion article. “It is appalling to use 'shit' as a stunt in a television program."

“Such racist rhetoric changed the national image of Sweden in my opinion,” Zha Lang said on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform in China.

“It is so unbelievable a state media can deliver such kind of speech,” Wobushihezhuixing commented.

The program has stirred a heated discussion on social media in China. People said it is unbelievable that a national television could deliver such racist rhetoric. /Screenshot from Weibo

On Sunday, the embassy issued a safety reminder to Chinese tourists saying it has received reports of robberies of Chinese tourists in cities of Sweden almost every day since April this year.