Two reporters and two editors punished for accidentally replacing “zhici” with “cizhi” in article on Xi’s speech.

Four Chinese state news agency staff have been suspended for a typo suggesting President Xi Jinping had resigned.

The Chinese word for “speech” – “zhici” – was accidentally replaced with “resignation” – “cizhi” – in the article written on Xi’s address to the China-Africa summit in South Africa’s Johannesburg, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy NGO said on Sunday.

About 20 state-run media carried the report on Saturday until a correction was issued about one hour and 20 minutes later, the Hong Kong-based advocacy group said.

Two reporters from the South Africa department and two editors at the China News Service were punished for the report.

The error occurred two days after the official Xinhua news agency misspelled US President Barack Obama’s name in a report about him meeting Xi, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.