South Korean pop stars Blackpink have been sharply criticised in China after they were pictured holding a newborn baby panda.
The girl group were accused of mishandling a national treasure and breaching strict rules intended to protect the endangered species from disease.
The K-pop band released a clip from a reality TV show in which they cuddled Fu Bao, a three-month-old panda cub, and prepared food for his mother.
Fu Bao, the first panda to be born in South Korea, was introduced to the public last week.
His parents arrived in 2016 from China's Sichuan province – the home of giant pandas – as part of the country’s so-called "panda diplomacy".
China owns all giant pandas, renting them to zoos around the world. The nation’s strict rules bar anyone other than vets or keepers from handling the animals.
Blackpink’s display was met with anger by Chinese social media users, who denounced the group for touching the cub with bare hands and wearing too much make-up, saying it threatened his health.
As of Tuesday, there were millions of views and 55,000 posts using the hashtag "Blackpink touched panda cub wrongly" on Weibo.
The controversial TV episode was due to be broadcast on Saturday, the group's music label YG Entertainment said it had been postponed.
Defending the band’s behaviour, the label said: "When Backpink met the baby panda, all members wore gloves, masks and protective clothing ... hands and shoes were disinfected at every point.
Hashtags "Blackpink" and "Panda" were also trending on South Korean Twitter over the weekend, with many users pushing back at the Chinese criticism.
They called on the country’s authorities to "return the pandas", arguing that "pandas are not ours and it is too expensive to raise them anyway".
