At least two of the tourists, however, said they were actually just watching a documentary about the 13th century Mongol leader, Genghis Khan.
Xinhua news agency said late on Saturday that the foreigners watched an unspecified documentary in a hotel room and later some of them watched video clips that advocated terrorism in the border region of Inner Mongolia. The foreigners said it was a misunderstanding.
The news agency cited the foreign affairs office of Ordos city, where police had stopped the 10 South Africans, 9 Britons and one Indian on July 10 as they were going to fly to Xi’an, home of the ancient terracotta warriors sculptures and their next stop on a 47-day tour of the country.
Britain’s Press Association reported that the documentary was a BBC production on Genghis Khan, citing a statement from two of the British tourists, husband and wife Hoosain and Tahira Jacobs. They said that the video “may have mistakenly been deemed as propaganda material”.
