In China a reporter can be harassed, detained and expelled. No appeal, no explanation, this is how it is. This is where China's Foreign minister Wang Yi, the diplomat who in Canada berated one of our reporters, gets his attitude from. China is a very different place when it comes to free speech and human rights, in that they might well be absent depending on your circumstances.

Did this reporter have a permit to visit Xinjiang? If he did not then the police will certainly expel him from the area.