Air China
Air China removed an in-flight magazine from all its planes after an article made racist remarks about Indians and Pakistanis.

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Air China says it has removed copies of its in-flight magazine which contained an article that told visitors traveling to London to take extra precautions with the town’s large ethnic-minority residents.

The airline said in a Sept. 8 statement the magazine used “inappropriate” language and said that the article didn’t represent its views. It also forwarded an email from the magazine’s publisher apologizing to Air China and saying the fault lay with an “editing mistake.”

The article had stated that “London is generally a safe place to travel, however precautions are needed when entering areas mainly populated by Indians, Pakistanis and black people.”

A British lawmaker said Sept. 7 that he had written China’s ambassador to Britain, demanding an apology for the “blatantly untrue and racist statements.”

After an internal discovery of the article, Air China officials removed all copies from its planes, and demanded that the publishers of ‘Wings of China’ seriously learn from this lesson, strengthen their content review and avoid making similar mistakes,” the airline said. The contents came to light after a journalist tweeted the snippet.

In its apology to Air China, the China Aviation Media Co. Ltd., the publisher of the magazine, said the article ran “counter to our original intention to promote the beautiful scenes of London.”

“It has brought about misunderstanding from some media outlets and readers and also a huge negative impact on your company’s business operations and image. We deeply apologize for that,” its statement read.

An earlier apology was posted on Air China’s North American Twitter account Wednesday afternoon in the U.S. But the tweet was deleted hours later without explanation.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that it hoped Air China would “properly handle the situation after its investigation.”

“I want to emphasize the position of the Chinese government,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing. “We always hold that all races are equal and firmly oppose all forms of racial discrimination.”