Photo: VCG

A Twitter user who is a student at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) sparked outrage among Chinese netizens on Saturday with his highly offensive remarks against China and Chinese people.

The user, who had deleted his insulting posts as of press time, made an apology on Twitter on Saturday evening in the face of overwhelming anger online. 

"As a Chinese citizen, I'm deeply regretful about my words and behavior that have harmed my motherland," the user wrote in Chinese.

UCAS confirmed in a late-night statement on Saturday that the user, surnamed Ji, is a postgraduate student at the university. UCAS said it will punish the student based on the university's regulations following further investigation.

Earlier, netizens noticed that Ji called Chinese people pigs and China "Zhi Na" on Twitter, a contemptuous name for China that was used by Japanese invaders during World War II.

Ji's Twitter posts, most of which were written in Chinese, also had outrageous content such as supporting a "disintegration" of China and glamorizing the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese invaders in 1937, some users found.

Ji's posts aroused widespread anger on Chinese social media on Saturday after a netizen uploaded some screenshots to Weibo. "I've never seen such malicious words from one of our compatriots," a Weibo user wrote. "His Nazi-like remarks make me feel sick," wrote another.

Angry Weibo users later found that Ji was probably a UCAS student based on a photo of Ji's laptop screen that he had previously posted on Twitter, which showed that he was using the UCAS campus network.

The university released a statement that afternoon on Weibo, saying it was paying attention to the incident and had established an investigation team to look into it.

"We are extremely astonished and resentful at his remarks," said the statement.