Avoid ethnic minority suburbs of London, Chinese tourists told

TOURISTS are being told to avoid areas of London ‘populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people’ by a Chinese airline’s in-flight magazine.

Wings of China, one of Air China’s publications, has caused outrage by advising against travelling to ethnic minority areas of the city.

A passage in the latest edition says: ‘London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people. We advise tourists not to go out alone at night.’

The ‘racist’ passage was printed in English and Mandarin and distributed to passengers on Asia’s third largest airline.

Chinese journalist Haze Fan tweeted a picture of it and sent it to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, asking him what he thought.

Now politicians are demanding the airline remove the phrase from the magazine and apologise to Londoners. Dr Rosena AllinKhan, Labour MP for Tooting, which has one of the largest Indian and Pakistani populations in London, said she will write to the Chinese ambassador to invite him to visit her constituency.

She said: ‘My initial thoughts were that the comments were outrageous. I think that it is offensive to Londoners and I would like to see it removed. I would also like to ask the airline why they thought these precautions needed to be taken. Why did they feel they needed to warn people of something that is not reflective of London at all?’

A spokesman from civil rights campign group Hope Not Hate said: ‘If true, these comments are crassly ill-informed and offensive, and simply peddle to outrageous stereotypes. It beggars belief to understand how they could have been written in the first place. They should be removed immediately. Londoners deserve an apology.’

Virendra Sharma, Labour MP for Ealing Southall, has written to the Chinese ambassador to Britain, demanding an apology.

He said: ‘I am shocked and appalled that even today some people would see it as acceptable to write such blatantly untrue and racist statements.

‘I have raised this issue with the Chinese ambassador, and requested that he ensures an apology is swiftly forthcoming from Air China, and the magazine is removed from circulation immediately.’

According to government agency VisitBritain, more than 270,000 Chinese people visited the UK in 2015, up 46 per cent on 2014, and they spent £586 million. In May, a Chinese cosmetics company had to apologise for a detergent advert which showed a black man being put in a washing machine and emerging as a smiling Asian man.

Air China failed to respond to requests for a comment yesterday.