Beijing lashed out at US Vice President JD Vance for comments he made about "Chinese peasants," adding a personal dimension to the tensions between the world's biggest economies just as a global trade war unfolds.
"It is surprising and sad to hear such ignorant and disrespectful remarks from the vice president," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
The remarks by the diplomat were a rare instance of China directly rebuking a top US leader.
Last week Vance complained about the China-US economic relationship in an interview with Fox News, saying it amounted to "incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us."
Then he added: "To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture. That is not a recipe for economic prosperity."
Internet users in China have hit back at the "peasant" line, pointing to tech advances that their country has made in recent decades, such as 5G (fifth generation) communications and high-speed trains.
They have also started circulating memes showing Vance and other top officials, including President Donald Trump, working in factory jobs that the American leader has said he wants to bring back to his country.