Yao Chen denies calling for China to take more refugees
BEIJING: Chinese actress Yao Chen has denied reports she called for China to accept more refugees into the country after a social media backlash over her supposed comments erupted over the weekend.
Yao, who boasts over 80 million followers on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, has taken to the social media site to push back on rumours she had called for China to accept more refugees from Syria.
“( This story) is a rumour. I have never represented this view at any time or in any occasion,” the actress wrote on her Weibo account on Monday.
Yao went on to quote Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi who said that “refugees are not immigrants” who wish to eventually return to their country”.
Yao’s post came in response to a barrage of criticism from Chinese netizens to her Weibo account and that of the UNHCR for which she is a Goodwill Ambassador.
Appointed as UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador in June 2013, Yao Chen was honoured at the Crystal Awards in Davos last year for her work to raise awareness of the global refugee crisis on behalf of the organisation.
Her outsized influence has seen her ranked among Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful Women
(This story) is a rumour. I have never represented this view at any time or in any occasion. Yao Chen, actress and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
and Time’s 30 Most Influential People.
In June, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi renewed Yao’s tenure as Goodwill Ambassador for an additional two years till June 2019.
Yao has been posting about refugees she had met from the Philippines, Thailand, Ethiopia, and Syria since 2010.
“Thanks to Yao Chen, refugees have entered the consciousness of millions of Chinese people,” said Grandi in June.