Chinese Ambassador ‘Likes’ an X-Rated Video. Awkward.

HONG KONG — When the Twitter account of a Chinese ambassador on Wednesday “appreciated” a tweet of an X-rated video involving the usage of toes, a livid assertion from the Chinese Embassy blamed “anti-China components” and demanded that Twitter launch an investigation.

The gesture by the envoy, Liu Xiaoming, the ambassador to Britain, created a storm on social media, with many debating whether or not it had been an accident or if his account had been hacked.

The account has a historical past of wierd likes. It has steadily appreciated its personal tweets. It has even appreciated criticism of China itself. Proof means that Mr. Liu could also be a tech-unsavvy boomer struggling to grasp a platform that’s banned in his personal nation.

However the episode threatened to develop into an embarrassing marker within the tenure of a number one voice amongst China’s “wolf warrior” diplomats.

Because the controversy boiled over, the ambassador’s account shortly scrubbed all however two of the handfuls of likes it had amassed over the previous yr, together with the one for the video.

A Twitter consultant declined to touch upon Thursday about China’s demand for an investigation.

The tabloids in Britain — whose diplomatic ties with China have grown extra strained over the national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong, a former British colony — immediately seized on the Twitter storm.

The Sun tabloid screamed that the “Firebrand Chinese Ambassador” had “PUT HIS FOOT IN IT.”

Mr. Liu, 64, one of China’s most high-profile diplomats, has served as the ambassador to Britain since 2009. He frequently appears on television attacking China’s critics and batting away criticism of his country’s crackdown on democracy advocates in Hong Kong and its mass incarceration of Uighurs in the Xinjiang region.

On a BBC program in July, he was proven drone video, apparently of prisoners in Xinjiang being led onto a practice. When requested what was occurring, he struggled to reply, then replied, “Xinjiang is considered probably the most lovely place.” He later instructed that the video may very well be pretend.

Mr. Liu joined Twitter final yr after different Chinese diplomats had amassed massive followings on the location. He shortly adopted the aggressive tone of a few of his colleagues, who’ve been nicknamed “Wolf Warriors” after the favored Chinese movie collection. In lower than a yr, his following grew to greater than 85,000.

He has used Twitter to attack Adrian Zenz, a scholar who has researched the Xinjiang crackdown. He has accused external forces of fomenting the protest motion in Hong Kong final yr. He has praised China’s coronavirus response and defended Huawei, the embattled Chinese tech firm.

However from the time he joined the social media platform, the like operate has proved significantly troublesome.

Quickly after his account posted an introductory message in October (“Hi there Everybody! I’m Liu Xiaoming…”) his account appreciated a reply {that a} Chinese ambassador wouldn’t usually approve: “Hail China dictatorship man! Hail totalitarianism!”

The unfastened likes didn’t seem to develop into a critical concern till Wednesday, when Mr. Liu’s account attained infamy.

“WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF EATING,” Luke de Pulford, a member of the British Conservative Get together’s Human Rights Fee, wrote in a tweet drawing consideration to Mr. Liu’s obvious endorsement of the video. “Felt a bit imply for this,” Mr. de Pulford added. “However then I remembered the #Uyghur focus camps and #HongKong and shortly received over it.”

The Chinese Embassy shortly got here to Mr. Liu’s protection, blaming unnamed components who it stated had “viciously attacked Ambassador Liu Xiaoming’s Twitter account and employed despicable strategies to deceive the general public.”

“The Embassy has reported this to Twitter firm and urged the latter to make thorough investigations and deal with this matter critically,” the assertion continued. “The Embassy reserves the appropriate to take additional actions and hope that the general public won’t consider or unfold such hearsay.”

Mr. Liu has in a roundabout way addressed the controversy. However he tweeted an obscure maxim that appeared to declare his innocence: “An excellent anvil doesn’t worry the hammer.”