Twitter suspends Chinese Embassy account over tweet about sterilization of minority Uyghur women

Twitter has locked the Chinese Embassy's official Twitter account following a post defending the country's ruling Communist Chinese Party's policies on the minority Uyghur population, specifically the sterilization of Uyghur women.

The tweet said the women were no longer "baby-making machines" and was posted Jan. 7 but wasn't removed by Twitter until roughly 24 hours later, according to Bloomberg News. 

Twitter replaced the post with a statement saying it was "no longer available."

Twitter hides tweets that violate rules and requires account owners to delete the posts to regain access to the account.

Twitter says the Chinese Embassy has yet to delete the tweet. The Chinese Embassy account — @ChineseEmbinUS — has not posted since Jan. 8 but tweeted at least a dozen more times since breaking Twitter's rules, Bloomberg also reports.

"We have taken action on this Tweet for violating our policy against dehumanization," a Twitter spokesman said in a statement. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Thursday that authorities were "puzzled" about why Twitter restricted the account and said the embassy has a responsibility to correct "fake reports and information related to Xinjiang."