China deports tourists for watching ‘terrorism’ videos

CHINA has deported a group 20 foreign tourists from Britain, South Africa and India for watching video clips that allegedly advocated terrorism and religious extremism, the official state media reported.

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”.