China's flagship carrier airline Air China has warned readers of its in-flight magazine to take "precautions" when visiting areas of London largely populated by "Indians, Pakistanis and black people".
The main article in the Wings of China in-flight magazine hails Britons' fondness for hats, before a sidebar offers tips for visiting the English capital, with the paragraph: "London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people."
The article also warns: “We advise tourists not to go out alone at night, and females always to be accompanied by another person when travelling.”
Really, @airchina? Are you trying to win the "Most Racist In-flight Magazine" competition? pic.twitter.com/4KDvTp3CFR
— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) September 8, 2016
Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing, Southall, which has a large Indian population, complained of Air China’s “blatantly untrue and racist statements ” .
“I have invited representatives of Air China to visit my constituency of Ealing, Southall to see that a very multi-cultural area is safe, and would be of great value for those visiting London to see,” he said on his blog.
“I will await their response, and if an appropriate one is not forthcoming I shall feel forced to question whether Air China is a fit company to operate in the UK,” Mr Sharma said.
Large travel market
China is the world's largest outbound travel market - with some 120 million people travelling overseas in 2015, and Air China operates two flights per day from Beijing to London Heathrow.
Irish tourism authorities have been keen to build on the UK’s tourist campaigns. Under the British Irish Visa Scheme (BIVS), Chinese visitors can use a single-visit visa to visit both the UK and the Republic of Ireland, as neither is part of the Schengen Agreement.
There have been several examples of racist ads or commentaries in the Chinese media in recent months.
In June, a racist detergent advertisement in which a black workman was “washed white” and transformed into a Chinese man by a Chinese homemaker caused an international stir.
The Global Times newspaper, which is published by the same group that publishes the People's Daily, the official organ of the ruling Communist Party, responded to the row by saying racism had only become a problem in China since the country started to open up to the West.
In July, an editorial in the Global Times urged African-Americans "to learn from other races, including Asian-Americans" on how to deal with racism by working hard and earning respect for their "educational and occupational achievements".
At the G20 meeting last week in Hangzhou, British prime minister Theresa May hailed the "Golden Era" of Sino-British relations.
London is a popular destination for Chinese tourists, the number of trips to Britain from China rose by 46 per cent last year to 270,000 according to the agency VisitBritain.
