CHINA TOPIX

03/28/2024 10:36:39 pm

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Eyewitness to Charlie Hebdo Carnage Lived to Tell Story but Resents Chinese Media for Distortion

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Wang Fanghui, Chinese man in Paris who was an eyewitness to the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Wang Fanghui, who witnessed the Charlie Hebdo gunmen enter the building where the office of the satirical French newspaper is located, feels bad at Chinese media for portraying him as a coward.

His negative feelings are toward the TV program Zhao Wen Tian Xia on CCTV whose reporter he accommodated and gave an interview to, out of consideration that the station belongs to his homeland.

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However, what came out disappointed Wang, a resident of Paris for 20 years, because the show made it appear that he agreed to be interviewed only after the gunmen, who are brothers with links to al-Qaeda, have been killed by French police.

Wang shared his sentiments with Caixin.com staff reporter Zhang Jin who was his classmate in college.

In a letter to Zhang, Wang recounts that two masked men barged into his office on January 7 at 11:22 a.m., armed with AK-47s pointed at Wang. He initially thought they were special police forces and asked them who they are.

Wang was told not to be afraid because they won't harm him, but one of them fired his weapon which hit the window in Wang's office. He then thought they were robbers.

The two left his office, and Wang immediately closed the door and called the police who responded.

Meanwhile, the two gunman went to the office of Charlie Hebdo and strafed it, killing 12 employees. They escaped, but were pursued by the French police and eventually killed in a gunbattle.

Word spread around that he saw the two gunmen before they killed the Charlie Hebdo staff, so Wang agreed to an interview with TF1, the largest TV station in France. His interview was talked about even in China, which led to the second interview with CCTV that disappointed Wang because of its portrayal of him as coward.

He didn't like the anchor's introduction that he turned down media interviews after the homicides and only agreed when assured that the gunmen were dead. To worsen matters, the reporter also changed what he said.

Wang wrote, "The reporter's upside-down remark has left my attempt in ruins and hurt my reputation. To say the least, it was a stab to an open wound."

He asked Zhang how CCTV could have twisted the story, but his college buddy neither has answers to that question.


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