New Delhi: Former US national security adviser (NSA) and UN ambassador Susan Rice has asked the Chinese government to recall a senior Pakistan-based diplomat following a Twitter row over alleged racism in Washington DC and Beijing’s reported persecution of Uyghur Muslims.
The diplomat, Lijian Zhao, had alleged in a series of tweets that Washington DC was segregated into neighbourhoods for African-Americans and Latinos and those for Caucasians or ‘whites’. Rice, who was born and raised in the US capital and is an African-American, took offence, calling Lijian “a racist disgrace”.
“You are a racist disgrace. And shockingly ignorant too. In normal times, you would be PNGed (made a ‘persona non grata’) for this. Ambassador Cui (China’s US envoy Cui Tiankai), I expect better of you and your team. Please do the right thing and send him home,” Rice tweeted Monday, after Lijian, the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, tweeted a map that purportedly showed racial segregation in Washington DC.
Xinjiang and Washington
It all started with a tweet Lijian posted on 13 July, where he listed 37 countries that have jointly sent a letter to the United Nations, claiming their support for China on the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
The letter came two days after 22 nations, including 18 from Europe, wrote to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urging China to end its mass detention of Uyghurs in alleged “re-education” camps where they are made to vow allegiance to the Chinese state.
The 37 nations reiterated China’s claim that the camps were nothing but vocational institutes and training centres where Uyghurs were taught different skills for the job market as part of counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation measures.
Referring to this endorsement, Lijian tweeted that it was “a big slap on the face of the US & its Western cohorts”.
https://twitter.com/zlj517/status/1150248934020960256
22 countries against China on Xinjiang issue. None is a Muslim country. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland & UK. https://t.co/JUv32BA6Vx
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) July 13, 2019
You are a racist disgrace. And shockingly ignorant too. In normal times, you would be PNGed for this.
Ambassador Cui, I expect better of you and your team. Please do the right thing and send him home. https://t.co/KIKanBjQ2L
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) July 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/zlj517/status/1150694706776608768
He then posted a series of tweets where he sought to question the US’ own record on human rights, pointing to its much-criticised immigration policy of detaining illegal entrants separately from their children and an alleged spurt in hate crimes.
“If you’re in Washington, D.C., you know the white never go to the SW (southwest) area, because it’s an area for the black (sic) & Latin. There’s a saying ‘black in & white out’, which means that as long as a black family enters, white people will quit, & price of the apartment will fall sharply,” he tweeted.
“The population of Southeast is predominantly black. Racism in US has existed since the colonial era. Racial stratification continues to occur in employment, housing, education, lending, & government,” he added.
Irked by his tweets, Rice demanded his recall. Lijian hit back, calling Rice a “disgrace” and “ignorant”, saying, “Truth hurts. I am simply telling the truth”.
“I stayed in Washington DC 10 years ago. To label someone who speak (sic) the truth that you don’t want to hear a racist, is disgraceful & disgusting,” he added.
Meanwhile, Beijing has refused to acknowledge the Twitter spat. When asked about the issue, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said while he was not aware of the situation, Beijing did oppose the “US’ and other Western countries’ move to interfere in China’s internal affairs”.
Not the first time
This was, however, not the first time Lijian went all guns blazing against another diplomat on Twitter, something that is a rarity with Chinese envoys, who generally do not discuss sensitive issues publicly.
In January, he got into a verbal duel with former Pakistan ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, who is now a fierce critic of the country’s political and military leadership.
According to Haqqani, the director for South & Central Asia, at the Washington-based thinktank Hudson Institute, “Zhao acts as a viceroy and, many a time, he exceeds the diplomatic protocol and etiquette.”
“Sitting in Islamabad, he has no business to speak on the US. He went a bit too far today (with Rice). At a time when Pakistan is trying to mend ties with the US, such an act is committed by him to portray that China is the real friend of Pakistan,” he added.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will be visiting the US later this month on an invitation from President Donald Trump. Khan will meet Trump at the White House on 22 July.
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A most un-diplomatic diplomat one will ever find. It’s hard to believe China cant find a decent diplomat out of its vast human resources.
As with so much else, President Trump is letting the United States down, with a racist statement like Go back where you came from.