Free Republic

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) got into a heated spat with a Chinese media official on Twitter on Thursday. The exchange began after Blackburn publicly thanked President Trump on the social media platform for banning cotton produced by forced Uighur labor. Beijing has faced loud international criticism over its treatment of the ethnic minority. "The U.S. will not support companies that profit off of slave labor," Blackburn wrote. In a subsequent tweet, she added, "China has a 5,000 year history of cheating and stealing. Some things will never change." Chen Weihua, chief Washington correspondent of the state-owned China Daily, snapped back...

Go figure that high-minded public engagement like this from China’s media orgs hasn’t won hearts and minds around the world. Senator Josh Hawley promoted a bill that would strip sovereign immunity from China to allow for COVID-19 lawsuits, a proposal that would face numerous obstacles anyway. Instead of shrugging it off, China Daily editor Chen Weihua decided to pick a fight, much to Hawley’s delight.The end result made Chen look less like a journalist and more like a paid troll: Because you are a joke— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) April 14, 2020 The nearly desperate effort to shift focus away...