'China's Mouthpiece' Hua Chunying Storms Foreign Currency Tweets on National Day... "China Kept Its Promise"

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Kim Hyunjung] The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, known as the "mouthpiece of China," has attracted attention by consecutively posting photos of foreign banknotes from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and others on his social networking service (SNS) during the National Day holiday. A common feature of these banknotes is that they depict local social overhead capital (SOC) facilities constructed with Chinese investment.

According to the Chinese state-run Global Times on the 6th, Hua Chunying, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted 13 photos of foreign currencies one after another on her Twitter account the previous evening. She wrote, "China has fulfilled its promise to build a better world together," adding, "This is a fact recorded on banknotes issued by allies and partners around the world."

All the currencies in the photos she posted depict local SOC facilities. Among them, the Gwadar Port on the 5-rupee banknote of Pakistan was built by China, and the Puttalam coal power plant on the 100-rupee banknote of Sri Lanka was funded and constructed by China. Additionally, the Rama VIII Bridge on the 20-baht banknote of Thailand was also built by China.

Other examples include the Nam Lik Hydroelectric Power Plant on the 20,000 kip banknote of Laos, the Algiers Grand Mosque on the 1,000 dinar banknote of Algeria, the Alcomsat-1 (satellite) on the 500 dinar banknote of Algeria, the Malawi Parliament Building on the 200 kwacha banknote of Malawi, Malawi University of Science and Technology on the 2,000 kwacha banknote of Malawi, the Merowe Dam on the 100-pound banknote of Sudan, and the Ginska Bridge on the 500 franc banknote of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These are known to have been either directly constructed by China or built through Chinese loans.

There is an interpretation that the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is officially on "holiday" during the National Day, posted these photos to target and criticize the United States. In fact, one netizen retweeted Hua Chunying’s post, writing, "How many universities has the U.S. government built in Afghanistan or Iraq? The answer is '0.'"

Hua Chunying often posts writings or photos targeting the U.S. through Twitter, a U.S.-based SNS. In August, she tweeted Mao Zedong’s remark that "America is a paper tiger," and the previous month, she posted an illustration implying that the G7 is a "frog in a well." However, her statements using SNS have also sparked controversy. In August, she emphasized that Taiwan is part of China by citing the reason that "there are many Chinese restaurants," which led to online ridicule.