China has been forced to deny that it’s making American diplomats undergo anal swab tests for the coronavirus. The Washington Post reported last week that some U.S. personnel had complained to the State Department they had been subjected to the invasive tests. Beijing hit back on Thursday, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian insisting to gathered reporters that: “China has never asked U.S. diplomats in China to go through anal swab tests.” But the U.S. State Department has a different story—a spokesperson told Vice that China has admitted to giving diplomats anal swabs in error, and has promised that it won’t happen again. The spokesperson said: “The State Department never agreed to this kind of testing and protested directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when we learned that some staff were subject to it.”

The Daily Beast reported earlier this week that U.S. conspiracy-theory communities have gone into freakout mode over the reports, baselessly claiming such testing was coming to ordinary Americans.