Of late some Chinese diplomats have adopted an aggressive response to comments by senior officials of foreign Governments. About 150 Chinese diplomats are learnt to have acquired new Twitter handles for the purpose. A couple of sample Tweets by them: Xu Hong, the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, on March 17 reacted to Trump's use of the phrase "Chinese virus" and said 'what Trump said is groundless and full of racism, totally ignored the great effort and sacrifice made by Chinese people! This is political virus to international solidarity and cooperation in fighting # COVID19" His comments were telecast by CGTN. Commenting on reports of calls in India for China to provide financial compensation, Ji Rong, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in India, tweeted on April 8, that "So-called complaint by certain Indian organisations to UNHRC asking China to compensate for losses caused by #COVID19 is ridiculous & eyeball-catching nonsense. At this difficult time, we need to work together instead of stigmatising others and shifting blame."
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