BEIJING - The Information Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lodged stern representations with the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Beijing office over its COVID-19-related fake news, according to a statement released on the ministry's website on Thursday.

According to the statement, the fake news was aired on the BBC on Jan 29. 

The Chinese side urged the BBC and its Beijing office to take China's stance seriously and take earnest measures to undo the report's vile impact, according to a  statement issued by the Information Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

According to the statement, the BBC video linked COVID-19 with politics and once again hyped topics of "covering up" the pandemic and the coronavirus' origin.

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The BBC also aired a video clip of anti-terrorism drills as news coverage of "violent law enforcement and human rights violations" by China's epidemic prevention authorities.

"This is fake news with typical ideological bias, which has resulted in a vile impact," reads the statement.

The Chinese side urged the BBC and its Beijing office to take China's stance seriously and take earnest measures to undo the report's vile impact, according to the statement.

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The BBC and its Beijing office should also make a public apology to China over the fake news, abandon its ideological bias, and stop deliberately smearing and attacking China. The BBC should follow work ethics, and carry out China-related news reporting in an objective, balanced and fair manner, the department said in the statement.

"China reserves the right to take further measures," the statement reads.

The Foreign Ministry also criticized the BBC on Friday, with the ministry's spokesman Zhao Lijian saying on Twitter: "BBC shall not become Bad-mouthing Broadcasting Corporation."

Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, said on Twitter: “I highly suspect that the BBC has been closely instigated by the intelligence agencies of the US and the UK. It has become a bastion of the Western public opinion war against China.”

Some people called for the BBC to be expelled from the Chinese mainland.

“The BBC has long been stationed in Beijing, yet has always held ideological prejudice and broadcast fake news from its platform, deliberately defaming China. After so many years, it’s past time that we took action,” one Weibo user said.

With Reuters' inputs