The Chinese embassy in the UK has taken aim at “anti-China elements” and demanded action from Twitter after a porn clip was “liked” by UK ambassador Liu Xiaoming’s social media account.

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Photo: Twitter screenshot.

Liu’s account “liked” a ten-second clip of a woman in stockings performing a sexual act on a man using her feet.

Since “likes” are visible to his 83,500 followers, screenshots quickly went viral with Luke de Pulford of UK NGO Hong Kong Watch tweeting: “Is this what Roosevelt called big stick diplomacy?… Felt a bit mean for this. But then I remembered the #Uyghur concentration camps and #HongKong and quickly got over it.”

The Chinese embassy said it hoped the public would not believe rumours: “Recently, some anti-China elements viciously attacked Ambassador Liu Xiaoming’s Twitter account and employed despicable methods to deceive the public. The Chinese Embassy strongly condemns such abominable behaviour,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Embassy has reported this to Twitter company and urged the latter to make thorough investigations and handle this matter seriously. The Embassy reserves the right to take further actions and hope that the public will not believe or spread such rumour[s].”

The account which posted the lewd clip was for fans of “beautiful legs in stockings.”

Tom is the editor-in-chief and founder of Hong Kong Free Press. He has a BA in Communications and New Media from Leeds University and an MA in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong. He has contributed to the BBC, Euronews, Al-Jazeera and others.