Tennessee senator called a ‘lifetime b****’ by top Chinese journalist

The online exchange occurred after Ms Blackburn thanked Donald Trump for banning the import of cotton produced by the forced labour of Uighur community

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn speaks during a news conference (REUTERS)

Republican Senator for Tennessee Marsha Blackburn has been called a “lifetime bitch” by a top Chinese journalist following a racist Twitter post.

The online exchange occurred after Ms Blackburn thanked Donald Trump for banning the import of cotton produced by the forced labour of China’s Muslim Uighur ethnic minority in the Xinjiang region.

The senator tweeted: “Thank you @realdonaldtrump for banning cotton produced by forced Uyghur labor. The US will not support companies that profit off of slave labor."

Two hours later she added: “China has a 5,000-year history of cheating and stealing. Some things will never change…”

Chen Weihua, the European Union bureau chief for China Daily, shot back with: “Bitch.”

The former Washington, DC, and New York chief correspondent for the state-run paper, then added: “This is the most racist and ignorant US Senator I have seen. A lifetime bitch.”

He continued: “Wonder why the US Congress would have approval rating as low as 9% (according to Gallup)? It is because people like lowlife Marsha Blackburn were there.”

Ms Blackburn responded shortly after calling Mr Chen “a puppet in Xi Jinping’s delusional China dream for global domination.”

“From Tiananmen Square to Uyghur genocide, Communist China is an expert at slaughtering populations. America will not bow down to sexist communist thugs.”

The exchange probably would have ended there, but Senator Marco Rubio of Florida retweeted Mr Chen’s initial response, adding “Meet the China Daily EU Bureau chief.”

The Chinese journalist doubled (or tripled?) down on his calling Ms Blackburn a bitch, saying “Hi, Marco, this is an understatement. She is much worst than that.”

During the Trump presidency, US-China relations have reached lows not seen in years, with each power at odds with the other over human rights, trade, and the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Donald Trump has frequently used racist epithets to describe Covid-19, constantly pointing the finger at China for allowing it to spread globally.

The move to ban cotton from Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) targets one of China’s largest producers.

A spokesperson for Joe Biden during the campaign labelled China’s treatment of the Uighurs as “genocide”.

Citing credible reports, the United Nations says that on million Uighur Muslims have been detained in camps and put to work

China has said that US politicians are fabricating news of forced labour in Xinjiang province and that the camps are vocational training centres to combat extremism.

On Thursday, the Trump administration’s director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe called China “the greatest threat to America today” in a blistering opinion article in The Wall Street Journal.