'Shame day': China's internet users blast US embassy posts of Trump's Zelenskyy rebuke
U.S. President Donald Trump, right, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 28. AFP-Yonhap
Chinese internet users flooded the social media account of the U.S. embassy in Beijing on Tuesday to mock President Donald Trump and the U.S. government, after it posted about Trump's fiery meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The post included a screenshot of an earlier statement by Trump on social media.
"We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It's amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don't want advantage, I want PEACE," Trump wrote online.
"He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace."
The posts also included clips of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio from interviews with CNN and ABC, in which he repeated Trump's stance and said Trump "wants [the war] to end". He said Trump was "the only person on Earth" who was capable of bringing Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiation table.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 7,000 comments had been left on the embassy's WeChat account by Chinese internet users, most of them critical.
"Shame day for the U.S." was one of the more common comments by Chinese netizens.
"The president and vice-president are not civilized at all," one person remarked, adding they were the "shame of the U.S."
"The U.S. not only sold Ukraine, but the reputation of the U.S. — the beacon of light — for 200 years," another person wrote.
But others jokingly speculated that there could be an amusing ulterior motive at work.
The U.S. embassy must be deliberately using the Chinese public to target the American president, because in the past it had never opened up its social media comments section. "The account must be controlled by Democrats," wrote another user.
After the clash between the two leaders on Friday, Beijing maintained an official silence over the weekend. On Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that China would continue to play a constructive role for the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and the realisation of peace.
Chinese state media, meanwhile, has played up the Russian response, quoting Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, as saying Trump did not berate Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy enough.
The confrontation in the Oval Office has also sparked a surge in trending hashtags. On Weibo, one of China's biggest social media platforms, a hashtag written in Chinese, that translated to "American journalists witness argument in White House for the first time" had attracted roughly 250 million views as of Tuesday afternoon.
Read the full story at SCMP.