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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

2020 in a nutshell? Chinese state media journalist responds to US senator’s racist tweet with sexist insult

  • Online nationalists overlook China Daily bureau chief’s use of misogynist slur to praise ‘Wolf Warrior’ attack on Republican Marsha Blackburn
  • Trump-supporting politician was widely criticised after saying Chinese had ‘5,000-year history of cheating and stealing’

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Marsha Blackburn hit back by accusing Chen of being a “puppet”. Photo: Getty Images/AFP
Shi Jiangtao
An exchange of insults between a US senator and a Chinese state media journalist has gone viral, with some internet users saying it sums up the relationship between the two countries in 2020.

The heated spat between Republican Marsha Blackburn and Chen Weihua, the Brussels bureau chief for China Daily, received thousands of retweets and likes and stirred nationalist sentiments among Chinese internet users.

On Thursday Blackburn tweeted that “China has a 5,000-year history of cheating and stealing. Some things will never change” – comments that were widely attacked for racism.

Chen responded by calling her a “b***h” in two tweets, the second of which said: “This is the most racist and ignorant US Senator I have seen. A lifetime b***h.”

The Tennessee senator, who has challenged China’s handling of Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the Covid-19 pandemic on Twitter over the past week, refused to back down.

“Chen, you’re a puppet in Xi Jinping’s delusional China dream for global domination,” she shot back. “From Tiananmen Square to [the] Uygur genocide, Communist China is an expert at slaughtering populations. America will not bow down to sexist communist thugs.”

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