Sydney:
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made use of Chinese social media platform WeChat to criticise a “false image” of an Australian soldier posted on Twitter by the Chinese government.
China has rebuffed Morrison’s calls for an apology following its foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted the digitally manipulated image of an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan kid on Monday.
China’s embassy stated the “rage and roar” from Australian politicians and media more than the image was an overreaction.
In a WeChat message on Tuesday evening, Morrison wrote that the diplomatic dispute more than the image of the soldier “does not diminish respect and appreciation for the Chinese community in Australia”.
He defended Australia’s handling of a war crimes investigation into the actions of particular forces in Afghanistan, and stated Australia is capable to deal with “thorny issues” like this in a transparent manner.
Australia has previously stated 19 soldiers will be referred for prospective criminal prosecution for the killings of unarmed Afghan prisoners and civilians.
WeChat told an Australian government inquiry in October it had 690,000 active each day customers in Australia. Morrison’s message had been study by 50,000 WeChat customers by Wednesday morning.
Zhao’s tweet, pinned to the best of his Twitter account, had been “liked” by 54,000 followers, following Twitter labelled it as sensitive content material but declined the Australian government’s request to get rid of the image.
Twitter is blocked in China, but has been increasingly made use of by Chinese diplomats who have adopted combative “Wolf Warrior diplomacy” techniques this year.
China on Friday imposed dumping tariffs of up to 200% on Australian wine imports, successfully shutting off the biggest export industry for the Australian wine market, amid a worsening diplomatic dispute that has observed a critical of trade reprisals imposed by China.
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