JD Vance earns 'swift and scathing' rebuke from China after 'peasant' remark

While President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to roil China, Vice President JD Vance created an uproar of his own after making comments about “Chinese peasants” that quickly spread throughout the foreign country – and incited the fury of Beijing officials.

That’s according to CNN, which reported Tuesday that Vance’s comments in a Fox News interview last Thursday have since shot to the top of one of China’s leading social media platforms Weibo.

“And to make it a little bit more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture,” Vance said in the interview.

CNN’s Will Ripley said the remarks reached Beijing “within hours” and sparked a “swift and scathing” response from the Chinese government.

“It’s both astonishing and lamentable to hear this vice president make such ignorant and disrespectful remarks,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said when questioned about the vice president’s comments at a news conference.

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Ripley said on CNN that the outrage targeting Vance was intensified after China’s “tightly controlled internet government censors” allowed the interview to go viral. It drew sarcastic tit for tats from the Chinese, including from some who mocked Vance for his background as author of the 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

The senior international correspondent offered his analysis on why he thinks Chinese officials are allowing the comments to be spread free of government censors.

“I think the reason why they're even amplifying and encouraging people to talk about this is because China knows it's on the verge of a very serious situation with this trade war,” Ripley told viewers on Tuesday. “They are preparing people for a fight, and so this just adds ammo to their argument, their American argument.”

Watch the video below via CNN or at the link here.