China blames hackers after US embassy retweets Trump post falsely claiming election fraud

Chinese embassy in Washington says account was hacked and ‘we condemn such an act’

Trump’s tweet about ‘election fraud’ was retweeted by the Chinese embassy account on Wednesday  (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

China’s US embassy has blamed hackers after its official Twitter account shared a post by Donald Trump demanding the 2020 presidential election results be overturned.

President Trump, continuing a barrage of unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud, had claimed the Democrats “cheated" in last month’s vote, which saw Joe Biden elected to  the White House.

“If somebody cheated in the Election, which the Democrats did, why wouldn't the Election be immediately overturned? How can a Country be run like this?” the message posted on Wednesday said.

 The tweet was retweeted by the Chinese embassy in Washington, drawing attention and speculation online.

The embassy later said its account had been hacked and it insisted staff had not retweeted anything on Wednesday.

"The Chinese Embassy Twitter account was hacked this afternoon and we condemn such an act. For clarification, the Embassy didn't do any retweeting on Dec 9," the embassy said in a tweet.

The incident comes at a time of strained ties between the US and China, with Beijing criticising the American government over sanctions against Chinese officials for their actions in Hong Kong. 

China also repeatedly featured during the presidential election campaign, in which each candidates accused the other of being soft of the country.

Like many of his recent tweets, Twitter had flagged Mr Trump’s post as making disputed claims.

Most US states have certified their elections with authorities, with even some prominent Republicans, standing up to declare the vote free and fair manner and urging Mr Trump to admit defeat.