Chinese diplomats slammed Reuters as “ugly” for a photo the media outlet used in a report about the country’s gold-medal winning weightlifter Zhihui Hou.
“Among all the photos of the game, @Reuters has chosen this one, which only shows how ugly they are,” the Chinese embassy of Sri Lanka tweeted Saturday in response to the report detailing Hou’s top medal in the women’s 49-kg weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics.
“Don’t put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organization. Shameless,” the embassy’s tweet continued.
The photo that caused the uproar is just an action shot of Hou lifting a weight with a strained expression on her face.
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On Sunday, China’s state-run newspaper the Global Times ran a story on the “controversial photo” that said some Western media organizations were “unfairly targeting China” in their Olympics coverage.
