In an apparent attempt to deflect international criticism of China’s mass detention of Muslims and other religious minorities in the Xinjiang province, Lijian Zhao wrote a series of tweets this weekend that were seemingly meant to highlight flaws in the United States, including racism, gun violence and income inequality. Zhao referenced a joint statement signed by 22 countries last week in condemnation of China’s moves in Xinjiang, where up to two million people have reportedly been detained in the camps and subjected to torture and forced re-education. He also mentioned a separate joint statement from 37 countries — many of which with their own shaky human rights records — which commended China for its “remarkable achievements in the field of human rights.” He called this letter a “big slap on the face of US &its western cohorts.”
In two of those tweets — which have since been deleted — the deputy chief of mission in Islamabad wrote that if “you’re in Washington, D.C., you know the white never go” to the southeastern part of the city “because it’s an area for the black & Latin.”