•The report was retweeted by Li Yang, a counsellor at the Chinese foreign ministry's press department, Chinese ambassador to South Africa Chen Xiaodong and ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, famous for her outspoken Wolf Warrior approach to diplomacy.
•After quoting the alleged statement from the Buyidao report, Hua tweeted: "A rare truth from US officials wh
Beijing and Washington are locked in another round of narrative wars.
This is over an unsubstantiated claim that US diplomats had admitted human rights issues in Xinjiang were made up to undermine China.
In a statement emailed on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the US embassy urged China to stop attributing false statements to American officials.
The spokesperson said the US position on Xinjiang remained that genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominately Muslim Uygur population and other ethnic and religious minorities were ongoing.
According to the South China Morning Post, the statement was referring to a claim that circulated on Twitter
Buyidao, a WeChat account alleged the US aimed to use the issue to make Xinjiang poor, unstable and separate from China.
The Buyidao report has been reposted by multiple social media accounts on Weibo, including those owned by the Communist Youth League and local Chinese government departments.
The report was retweeted by Li Yang, a counsellor at the Chinese foreign ministry's press department, Chinese ambassador to South Africa Chen Xiaodong and ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, famous for her outspoken Wolf Warrior approach to diplomacy.
After quoting the alleged statement from the Buyidao report, Hua tweeted: "A rare truth from US officials who've been lying through their teeth. Waiting for an explanation."
As least nine Twitter accounts, most of them created last month, commented and repeated the rumour as early as May 27, days before the Buyidao report.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he would not be surprised if the allegations were true.
The US embassy spokesperson said: "Such action potentially endangers the US officials being named and is inconsistent with the [People's Republic of China's] obligations to treat United States diplomats with due respect and take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on their freedom or dignity," according to a statement emailed on Tuesday.
The US embassy spokesperson said there was "ample and damning evidence" - such as satellite imagery, leaked photos and documents and witness testimony from former detainees of internment camps - of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The spokesperson also said online activists in China had exposed the personal information of US officials and their spouses, and encouraged attacks, a move amplified by Chinese media reports.
"These campaigns appeared to have been conducted with the tacit approval of the PRC government, which exerts near total control over the PRC media's news coverage."
China has denied accusations of human rights abuse, saying the camps were needed for deradicalisation and to tackle terrorism. An average 1.3 million "students" have been "trained" each year from 2014 to 2019 at the facilities, Beijing said.