As relations worsen, US, Chinese ambassadors spar on Twitter in Brazil

US Ambassador retweets a State Department account accusing the Chinese Communist Party of conducting a mass sterilisation campaign for Uighur women

The US and Chinese ambassadors have gotten into a Twitter spat in Brazil, echoing the tense relations between the nations as a whole.

It started Friday when US Ambassador Todd Chapman retweeted a State Department account accusing the Chinese Communist Party of conducting a mass sterilisation campaign for women as part of its crackdown on Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang province.

Silence is not an option, Chapman added.

On Saturday, the US Embassy Twitter account quoted the FBI director accusing China of paying scientists at American universities to secretly bring our knowledge and innovation back to China -