PARIS -- An online petition calling for stopping demonizing China has gathered nearly 600 signatures since it was launched on French website MesOpinions.com on Thursday evening.

In the petition, the initiators pointed out there is no genocide in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, but real attacks exist against French journalist and author Maxime Vivas in France, exposing "violations of freedom of expression."

Based on his two trips to Xinjiang, Vivas wrote the book "Uygurs, to put an end to fake news," which depicts Xinjiang as a prosperous and stable region.

He expressly pointed out in the book that those who have never been to Xinjiang are the ones fabricating fake news and piling up lies about the place, but he later suffered insults and slanders from some French media.

Along with French writer Jean-Pierre Page and other scholars from around the world, he then co-edited another book, "La Chine sans oeilleres" (China without blinders). However, his books brought him an avalanche of insults and attacks from a group of French media, with some calling him an "agent" of China.

"What our media cannot stand is quite simply the publication of non-sinophobic, non-racist, non-imperialist quartermasters. The author does not even have to be pro-Chinese to bear the bashes, it is enough that he is suspected of being pro-truth," the petition said on the website.

The petition appealed for the right to speak differently about China and mutual respect on Chinese issues.

"Let us respect China as it respects ourselves," it said.