Chinese Newspaper Chief Slams US Diplomats Over Olympics Boycott, Calls Them ‘Close Contacts’ of ‘Covid-19 Patients’

Screen Capture of Hu Xijin

China’s Global Times Editor in Chief Hu Xijin lashed out at the United States on Monday for announcing that American diplomats would abstain from attending the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, suggesting they were “close” to Covid-19 patients.

“Only super narcissistic people will regard their absence as a powerful boycott,” Xijin wrote in a message on Twitter. “Most of those US govt officials are close contacts of the COVID-19 patients according to China’s standard, moreover picky and pretentious. You are the people that Beijing residents least want to see.”

The White House said Monday that officials would stay home from the Olympics in protest of the country’s human rights violations, though athletes would still be permitted to compete. Rankled Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian promised that retaliatory measures would be taken without specifying what they might be, but in an additional Twitter missive, Hu appeared to give the country room to back out of that commitment, writing, “Why the fuss? If US officials don’t come, let it be. China didn’t invite them anyway. Biden administration repeatedly tests water. So diffident.”

Hu, who serves as an unofficial mouthpiece for the Chinese government from his post leading the Communist-backed, English-language Global Times, has developed a reputation for using acerbic rhetoric to lash out at the U.S. over policies opposed by his government. He opined on Twitter in October that China should kill U.S. “invaders” in Taiwan after a report that American armed forces were helping to train the country’s military.