Australia and China clash again over ‘disgusting’ tweet

The deterioration of relations between China and Australia does not raise its head. Tensions reached new highs on Monday when a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry tweeted a photomontage of a smiling Australian soldier. shoot an afghan boy.

“Don’t be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace,” reads the bottom of the photo. The false image sparked enormous outrage in Canberra, which demanded an immediate apology from Beijing for the Message “disgusting” and its withdrawal.

The tweet was posted by Zhao Lijian, a former diplomat famous for his incisive messages With a marked nationalist cut that has already been embroiled in more controversy, such as when, in May, he credited the theory that US soldiers brought the coronavirus to Wuhan.

Along with the montage, the work of an artist known as Wuheqilin, the Chinese wrote: “Shocked by the killing of Afghan civilians and prisoners at the hands of Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn these acts and hold them accountable. “

History of a disagreement

The episode to which the tweet refers is a report released by the Australian military a few weeks ago in which it admitted that its soldiers had committed war crimes in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. According to the investigation, troops of Australian elite murdered 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners, none of them in incidents “under the pressure of the fight” and many as part of initiation rituals for new soldiers.

On Friday, the expulsion of thirteen Oceanic Army soldiers was announced. Countries like Russia or China itself have taken advantage of the report’s findings to underline the “hypocrisy” of the struggle for human rights and freedom of certain Western countries in third countries.

The origin of the current bad relations between the two countries dates back to the end of April 2020. Australia was one of the countries which requested a independent investigation which will determine the origin of the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. Just days after the information came to light, Chinese Ambassador to Australia Chen Jingye suggested the Chinese could respond with a boycott of Australian goods.

In mid-May, Beijing suspended Australia’s meat exports, citing “health reasons”. Five days later, it imposed an 80% tariff on Australian barley exports, its main supplier of this key beer ingredient.

In an August presentation to the National Press Club in Canberra, Chen Jingye said Australia’s attitude to push for an investigation into the origins of the pandemic “hurt the feelings” of the Chinese, since it was based on the presumption that it all started in Wuhan, a hypothesis that China disputes.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the tweet “totally outrageous” and “disgusting,” and called on Twitter for its immediate withdrawal. “The Chinese government must feel totally embarrassed for this message (…) Without doubt, there are tensions between China and Australia, but this is not the way to manage them, ”he added.

His criticisms were supported by other politicians, commentators and human rights organizations, who recalled the abuses committed by Beijing against its own population in places like Tibet, Xinjiang or Hong Kong.

However, his complaints found no resonance in Beijing. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, also publicly defended her colleague and rejected the requests for forgiveness.

Ref “It is justified that Australian soldiers coldly kill innocent civilians in Afghanistan, but is it not reasonable for people to condemn these crimes?” He told reporters. Monday the tweet was posted at the top of Zhao’s account, which suggests that his superiors did not ask him to remove it.

With information from La Vanguardia