China’s ambassador to Washington had a Twitter account? No, turns out it was fake
In about a week, an account attributed to Ambassador Cui Tiankai garnered about 700 followers, but it was suspended as the embassy threatened ‘the counterfeiters’
A new Twitter account attributed to Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, was abruptly suspended after the embassy said it was fake and warned of legal action.
“Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai has never opened an account with Twitter,” the embassy said in a statement on Sunday. “Any current Twitter accounts opened in the Ambassador's name or with his photo are fake.”
The embassy added that it might “pursue legal actions against the counterfeiters”.
The fake account was started last week with the handle @CTiankai and carried the ambassador’s full name under his photo. It also included a profile biography saying: “Chinese diplomat and currently the Chinese ambassador to the United States”, although it did not link to the embassy’s website.
A screen shot of the account showed that in about one week it had attracted nearly 700 followers and included several general comments about US-China relations attributed to Cui.
An embassy spokeswoman told the South China Morning Post on Monday that “any unauthenticated accounts are all fake.” The embassy declined to say whether its personnel or Cui himself asked Twitter to take down the account, which was suspended as of Monday.