Chinese embassy angry at western media for using ‘ugly’ photo of medal-winning weightlifter

A Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka called out North American media agency Reuters for its photo choice in a story about Zhihui Hou, a weightlifter who won first place in the Women’s 49kg Weightlifting competition at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 on Saturday.

The photo that’s seemingly caused outrage appears to show Hou straining as she raised the barbell above her waist.

As a result, the embassy took to their official Twitter account with a statement against Reuters, accusing the platform of putting “politics and ideologies above sports.”

Among all the photos of the game, @Reuters has chosen this one, which only shows how ugly they are,” the caption began. “Don’t put politics and ideologies above sports, and call yourself an unbiased media organization. Shameless. Respect the spirit of #Olympics.”

Some people in the comments agreed that this wasn’t the most flattering photo and wondered why the outlet didn’t choose something else.

However, someone else disagreed with the sentiments and wrote: “I think it's a well-captured photograph, which shows nothing good in life comes easy. It's up to the person viewing the picture to interpret it, but most will appreciate this. It's quite sad that the embassy finds this “ugly.” If it was a beauty pageant, then it's a different matter.”

The embassy then ended up doubling down on the accusations in response to the aforementioned comment,

“Same day, same Olympics, same Reuters, different faces. Maybe it’s because everything good in life comes easier for the white westerners?” the embassy wrote, in part.

The 4-foot-10 standout set a record height in three categories— snatch, clean and jerk, and total — during her game performance. Her 210 kg (roughly 463-pound) lift haul left her just three kilos shy of breaking her own impressive world record.