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Home > News > World News > Article > Air China apologises for racist travel tips

Air China apologises for racist travel tips

Updated on: 09 September,2016 09:33 AM IST  | 
Agencies |

The national carrier’s magazine advised London visitors to be careful entering ‘areas with Indians, Pakistanis’

Air China apologises for racist travel tips

The airline has issued an apology over the racist remarks in the in-house magazine and withdrawn the issue


Beijing: China yesterday asked its flag-carrier Air China to investigate the racial comments found in its in-house magazine advising London visitors to take ‘precautions’ when entering areas populated by “Indians, Pakistanis and black people”.


“I have seen the report, but I have no specific information on that,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here. “The position upheld by Chinese government is that all ethnic groups are equal. We are firmly opposed to any form of racial discrimination,” Hua added.


Following the controversy, Air China Media, which publishes the ‘Wings of China’ magazine, said it apologised to “readers and passengers who are feeling uncomfortable”.

It added: “This inappropriate description...was purely a work mistake by the editors and it’s not the magazine’s views. We will immediately recall this entire issue and draw lessons from this incident.”

In a long feature on visiting London, it offered some “Tips from Air China”, which states “London is generally safe, however, precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people.”

Indian-origin MP for Ealing Southall, Virendra Sharma, had first tweeted, “This is offensive and I hope AirChina will apologise immediately,” calling it “blatant racism”.

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