"Addiction to Twitter diplomacy unwise," reads an article published by the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua late Tuesday night. The headline clearly expresses China's frustration over Trump's handling of sensitive Sino-U.S. issues by going to social media.
While China has banned the use of Twitter at home, ironically, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump recently targeted China on his Twitter feed. On Monday, he posted a tweet criticizing China, accusing it of a "totally one-sided trade."
The tweet read: "China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice!"
In this tweet, Trump was accusing China of refusing to help the U.S. in containing North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The president-elect also tweeted about Beijing over Taiwan trade and the South China Sea dispute.
On Tuesday, China's foreign ministry spokesman responded to Trump's controversial tweet at a regular press conference. He said that Beijing had always been doing its part to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
Xinhua published a byline commentary hours after Trump's tweet.
"It is commonly accepted that diplomacy is not a child's game--and even less is it business dealing. As former United States Secretary of State [Madeleine] Albright said, Twitter should not be a tool for foreign policy," said the commentary.
He might not be sworn into office just yet, but Trump's tweets might affect the relations between the two countries.
"China is unhappy about Trump's public approach to diplomacy, because they think it will not help solve diplomatic disputes and--even worse--will aggravate the negative public sentiments in both countries against each other," said Zhang Zexin, a U.S. foreign affairs expert from the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.
While he is only a few weeks away from moving to the White House, Trump should shape up and get a crash course in international diplomacy.