A senior representative of a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece lashed out at Britain’s Mr Brexit, Nigel Farage, telling him to “wear a mask and stop talking shit” on Sunday.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that for millions of Britons, Christmas would effectively be cancelled if they lived in the most populous region of the country at a press conference at the weekend. Many mourned yet another loss of freedom thanks to the government’s harsh reaction to the Chinese coronavirus, among them Brexit leader Nigel Farage, who slammed China for their role in the virus spiralling out of control.
Following up previous comments in which Mr Farage has directly blamed China’s early mismanagement of the Wuhan virus for the pandemic, he took to social media to remark simply: “Christmas cancelled. Thank you, China.”
The quip didn’t go unnoticed by the machinery of the Chinese Communist Party, however, with Chen Weihua of the state news outlet China Daily hitting back: “Nigel Farage is Trump’s puppet. A big joke in Europe…. wear a mask and stop talking shit.”
The angry reply has been retweeted by fans of the Chinese government’s man thousands of times.
British Brexiteer Farage may have had the last word on the exchange, however, as he shot back at the outburst with a reminder of his own position, expressed several times this year, that given the Chinese government’s mismanagement of coronavirus, it should burden some of the cost to Western economies.
“The Chinese Communist Party don’t like the truth and always respond aggressively. They should pay the West reparations for this global disaster,” he said.
Earlier this month, the erstwhile UKIP leader said China should pay “very heavy reparations” — but it could end up facing no consequences as a China-friendly Joe Biden administration gets closer to the White House in the United States.
Mr Farage is not the only Briton angered by China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, a poll early in the outbreak found that three-quarters of Britons said China was to blame for the spread of the virus, and four-fifths said there should be an international inquiry into their actions.
Sunday’s outburst is not by far the first time Mr Chen has used his platform as a senior Chinese communist propagandist in Europe to agitate on Western political matters. When U.S. Republican senator Marsha Blackburn criticised China earlier this month, Chen’s condemnation was simple, and charactistically profane. In a one-word response to a social media message by Sen Blackburn, Chen wrote “bitch”.
He later followed the message up, expanding on the point: “This is the most racist and ignorant U.S. Senator I have seen. A lifetime bitch.” In other unguarded comments, Chen called U.S. President Donald Trump an “insane and stupid lunatic” and Mike Pompeo a “shit face“.
Breitbart News’s James Pinkerton observed Chen’s social media habits in a profile of the man in May, noting that while Chen bashes U.S. Republicans “reliably”, he also “echoes, eagerly, top Democrats and leading Never Trumpers.”