Journalist Says China May Expel Her for Article on Uighurs

A French journalist says she is facing expulsion from China after she wrote an article critical of the country’s treatment of its Uighur minority, which set off stinging criticism in the state-controlled press, a public rebuke from a government spokeswoman and a torrent of online invective.

The journalist, Ursula Gauthier, a Beijing-based reporter for the newsmagazine L’Obs, must leave China before Jan. 1 unless her press credentials are renewed, usually a routine process taking place in November and early December for the hundreds of foreign correspondents based in China. As of Tuesday, Ms. Gauthier said in an interview, she had received no notice from the Foreign Ministry that she would be allowed to stay, nor any similar indication from French diplomats, who have raised her case with Chinese officials.