China's state broadcaster CCTV deleted a tweet claiming the country's president had set up a special unit to probe corruption accusations against a former domestic security chief. The tweet referred to an article in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper. CCTV said that the Twitter account was hacked on October 21 and used illegally to post incorrect information copied from other sources.
The Tweet said that President Xi Jinping has set up a special unit to investigate corruption allegations against the retired leader Zhou Yongkang. The South China Morning Post, had said Zhou was being investigated for corruption. But sources have told Reuters he was helping in a graft probe, rather than being targeted himself.
Twitter is blocked in China but some state media have set up accounts in an apparent bid to reach foreign audiences. The hack would have had little impact as the account only has 2,480 followers, in contrast to the 9.9 million followers of its main account on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.
