China's embassy in Japan drew public outcry recently after posting an anti-Semitic image on its official Twitter handle.
Last Thursday, the embassy tweeted a picture displaying the United States as the Grim Reaper, adorned in a Stars and Stripes gown, leaving a trail of blood behind as it walks from one door to another.
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Screengrab of a tweet posted and then deleted by China's embassy in Japan official Twitter handle accessed through the Internet Wayback Machine, May 2, 2021
(Photo: Screenshot)
The doors were emblazoned with names of Middle Eastern countries, and the reaper's scythe is painted in the colors of the Israeli flag and has a Star of David on it.
The image was accompanied by a short text message alleging that this was how the U.S. promoted democracy.
On Friday, the tweet was taken down — reportedly after the Israeli ambassador to Japan's outreach; according to the Jerusalem Post, China's envoy claimed he did not spot the Israeli flag on the image.
Before being taken down, the tweet drew fury from Japanese Twitter users, with the iconic Tiananmen Square "Tank Man" photo gathering over 6,000 "likes" in replies, as reported by South China Morning Post.
Another user edited the Grim Reaper to sport a Chinese flag-colored gown instead, with the labels on the doors changed to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.
The incident comes at a time of high diplomatic frictions between China and both Japan and the United States over a broad range of issues, including China's regional territorial ambitions as well as the communist country's policies on Hong Kong and Taiwan.