The Chinese Embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, posted a tweet
this month that said that Uighur women were no longer "baby making
machines," citing a study reported by state-backed newspaper China Daily.
The tweet was removed by Twitter and replaced by a label
stating that it was no longer available. Although Twitter hides tweets that
violate its policies, it requires account owners to manually delete such posts.
The Chinese embassy's account has not posted any new tweets since Jan. 9.
Twitter's suspension of the embassy's account came a day
after the Trump administration, in its final hours, accused China of committing
genocide in Xinjiang, a finding endorsed by the incoming Biden administration.
The Biden administration did not immediately respond to a request
for comment on Twitter's move.
"We've taken action on the Tweet you referenced for
violating our policy against dehumanization, where it states: We prohibit the
dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age,
disability, serious disease, national origin, race, or ethnicity," a
Twitter spokesperson said on Thursday.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately
respond to a e-mailed request for comment. Twitter is blocked in China but is
an increasingly favored platform by China's diplomats and state media.
China has repeatedly rejected accusations of abuse in its
Xinjiang region, where a United Nations panel has said at least 1 million
Uighurs and other Muslims had been detained in camps.
Last year, a report by German researcher Adrian Zenz
published by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation think tank accused China
of using forced sterilization, forced abortion and coercive family planning
against minority Muslims. The Chinese foreign ministry said the allegations
were groundless and false.
Twitter's move also follows the removal of the account of
former U.S. president Donald Trump, which had 88 million followers, citing the
risk of violence after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol this month.
Twitter had locked Trump's account, asking for deletion of
some tweets, before restoring it and then removing it altogether after the
former president violated the platform's policies again. -Reuters