Photo: Weibo snapshot

A foreign teacher in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, was fired for abusing anti-epidemic workers during a nucleic acid testing that violates China's law, the school where he worked announced on Sunday.

The Xi'an Qujiang Kang Chiao International School said in the statement that it decided to dismiss the foreign teacher who taught there because of his improper personal behavior in the epidemic prevention, which violates the employment contract that states, "Do not disrespect the country or race, or violate laws and regulations in China."

According to the video posted online earlier on Friday, a foreign man who was taking a nucleic acid test publicly called health workers "crazy" and "insane" and even spat on the ground. During the process, many people surrounded repeatedly dissuaded the man from his behavior and told him to abide by China's rules and policies, while the man's attitude remained defiant.

The publisher later said she has received a message of apology from the man's family. His family said the man's ability to express his feelings in Chinese was limited and that he had used the wrong words and did not mean to insult the health official, and he regretted his rashness.

However, many netizens took it hard, saying the use of insulting words and spitting was clearly intentional. "Can spitting also be interpreted as using the wrong words?", a netizen wrote on Chinese -Twitter- like platform Sina Weibo.

"This is not only an insult to the health official but also an insult to China's law and social order," said another Weibo user, "Someone like him is not qualified to teach our children."

Global Times