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Chinese Embassy Complains Against Reuters Photo
The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka complained on Sunday against the use of an “ugly” photograph of a Chinese Olympic weightlifter by Reuters news service.
Chinese weightlifting champion, Hou Zhihui, grimaces as he tries to lift a barbell during the Tokyo Olympics.
Photo: Photograph courtesy of Edgard Garrido/Reuters.
However, the hypocrisy of the Chinese authorities was soon revealed when it was discovered that several other official state news outlets had used the same photograph in their own reporting.
The photograph used by Reuters shows China’s weightlifting gold winner, Hou Zhihui, grimacing and straining as he tries to lift some weights.
But the Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka tweeted a complaint: “Don’t put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organization. Shameless. Respect the spirit of #Olympics.”
But at the same time, several state-run news agencies — Xinhua, China Daily, and Sina — all used the same image without complaint.
In a follow-up tweet that some have considered racist, the embassy also tweeted: “Maybe it’s because everything good in life comes easier for the white westerners?”
Chinese users of several social media platforms expressed their anger over the use of the image by Reuters, with one user on Sina Weibo saying that this was further proof that western media were “evil.”
