China threat to UK in TV row

CHINA has threatened to retaliate after British regulators stripped its state TV channel of its UK broadcasting licence, a decision based on technical issues but rooted in complaints about its role in persecuting critics of the ruling Communist Party. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters that British media watchdog Ofcom had acted on “political grounds based on ideological bias, politicising technical issues, seriously harming the survival of Chinese media and severely interfering with normal exchanges between the two countries”. He did not say what form any retaliation might take. Ofcom said it revoked the UK licence for China Global Television Network, due to a lack of editorial control and links to China’s Communist Party.