China on Tuesday slammed US Vice President JD Vance for referring to the Chinese people as “peasants” in an interview that has drawn widespread ire and ridicule on China’s internet – and comparisons with Vance’s own self-proclaimed “hillbilly” background.

Speaking to Fox News last Thursday, Vance defended President Donald Trump’s market-hammering tariffs and railed against the “globalist economy.”

“What has the globalist economy gotten the United States of America? And the answer is, fundamentally, it’s based on two principles – incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us,” Vance told news show “Fox & Friends.”

“To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

Asked about Vance’s comments at a regular news briefing Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said: “It’s both astonishing and lamentable to hear this vice president make such ignorant and disrespectful remarks.”

CNN has reached out to Vance’s office for comment.

Clips of Vance’s interview made their way to the Chinese internet this week, drawing an intense backlash in a country where factory floors are lined with industrial robots, cities are embracing homegrown electric vehicles and remote counties are connected by a nationwide web of high-speed railways.