A fake image tweeted by a Chinese diplomat has caused a huge rift between Australia, Australia and China – and a global focus on the actual war crimes committed by Australian troops committed in Afghanistan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian, who seems happy to troll his opponents, tweeted a gruesome picture on Sunday of a vague Australian Australian soldier holding a knife to the neck of an Afghan child. The baby’s face in the image was covered with the Australian flag, and below it is the motto: “Fear not, we are coming to bring you peace!”
The doctored, computer-generated image was created by Chinese nationalist artist Wuheklin, but it was inspired by a real event.
Last month, Australia released the Bretton Report, the result of a four-year investigation into war crimes committed by the nation’s elite special air services while fighting in Afghanistan.
The report’s shocking allegations also included that 39 soldiers were involved in the killing of 39 Afghan civilians, none of which happened during the war. Senior commanders allegedly encouraged junior officers to call the killings an “incentive” to kill prisoners, and the deceased kidnappers were armed to justify their sentences.
The report sent shockwaves through Australians, but it did not dominate the global news, with Zhao’s trolling tweet turning the subject of Australian Australian war crimes into an international diplomatic issue, forcing the Australian government to respond and making the story a global headline. .
“He is absolutely criminal and cannot be justified on any grounds,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters on Monday. “The Chinese government should be ashamed of this post. It makes them less visible to the world. … It’s a false image and a terrible slur on our great defense forces. “Australian Foreign Minister Mary Payne has also apologized to Beijing.
This is unlikely to happen. “The Australian Australian party is reacting very strongly to my colleague’s tweet,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chuning said during a briefing on Monday. “How are you? Do they believe that the brutal killing of their Afghan citizens is justified but not condemnation of such brutal cruelty? Afghan life is important! ”
Of course, China is richer rather than blasting another country’s human rights abuses, not because it has imprisoned two million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps. As part of the years-long diplomatic and trade battle between China and Australia, it is best to look at the Twitter-provocative spot less than Beijing expresses real concern.
Adam Ni, of the China Policy Center in the Australian capital, said the act by Zhao showed further escalation in the war of words between Canberra and Beijing and that this was in light of the deterioration of bilateral relations over the past few years. “In fact, in decades – it’s probably the worst thing that’s ever happened.”
Australia Australia has opposed growing China. China does not like it.
Australia Australia has never liked China’s growing intransigence in the world and especially in its territory. For example, the Chinese military began creating artificial islands in the South China Sea to advance territorial claims to disputed waters. Asia Australia, as one of the most powerful players in the Asia-Pacific region, was not very kind to him.
Beijing’s political aggression also bothered Canberra. In 2017, Australia banned all foreign donations for political campaigns following reports that China was trying to influence the nation’s political process. The following year, 5 Australia became the first country to block Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE from its 5G network.
Their relationship only deteriorated in 2020.
In April, Australia vowed to investigate China’s handling of the early days of the coronavirus epidemic, while Beijing obscured evidence of a growing problem after the virus was born in Wuhan. In April, the government-run Global Times newspaper accused China of “beating up pandas” and “mutilating” the Australian government’s rationalization of this mutually beneficial comprehensive strategic partnership.
The following month, China responded by cutting Australian meat imports and imposing tariffs on China of more than 0% of Australian barley imports. Then in November, Beijing took it a step further by imposing tariffs of up to 200 per cent – not typo – not on Australian wine. Some experts expect further trade growth, while China will target Australian Australian sugar, lobster, coal and copper ore.
The Week Australian newspaper reported this week that Canberra-Beijing relations were at their lowest point in 50 years. There is no-f ramp for the escalating feud at the moment, but it is clear that Australia is not happy with the situation. “There are undoubtedly tensions between China and Australia,” Morris said in a statement on Monday. “But that’s not how you deal with them.”
Nevertheless, at the latest level Australia drew attention to the reality of unrest for Australia: the horrific actions of some members of its military during the war in Afghanistan.
What the Australian Army’s report on alleged war crimes says
The Bretton Report, released on 10 November, was officially titled “Inspector General of the Australian Australian Defense Force’s Afghanistan Inquiry Report”. In particular, there are 5 46 pages within three pages of the document, many of which are rewritten in the public version.
The main allegation is that 25 current or former members of Australia’s special forces killed 39 people in a total of 23 incidents in Afghanistan and committed two atrocities.
“There is no evidence of this controversial decision being taken under duress in the heat of battle,” the report said. “In cases where it has been found that there is reliable information on war crimes, there are cases in which it was plain that the person who was killed was not a combatant.”
The report states that one of the most widely reported incidents in the documents was “probably the most outrageous episode in Australia’s military history.” Another allegation is that there was a culture in Afghanistan of special forces committing “bloodshed” of junior officers, which was essentially a horrible form of hedging and initiation.
The report states, “There is credible information that junior soldiers were required by their patrol commanders to kill a prisoner, so that the soldier was first killed, known as ‘Bloody’.” This will happen after the target compound is secured, and Local citizens were protected as ‘persons under control’. Normally the patrolling commander will take control of one person and the junior member, who will then be instructed to kill the person under control. ”
The third major allegation, related to the second, is that officers placed weapons – known as “throwing” – on corpses to form part of a cover story for the murder. The process was “intended for operational reporting and to devalue verification. This was implemented in conjunction with the Code of Silence,” the report said.
Clearly, Australia had major cultural problems serving Australia’s elite forces in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, the Guardian Australia Australia released a real 2009 photo of an unidentified Afghan soldier drinking alcohol from the prosthesis of a dead Taliban member in an authorized military bar in Afghanistan. In another real photo, two soldiers were seen dancing with one foot.
While Afghans may be among the worst messengers for Australia’s treatment of Afghans during the China war, the horrors Beijing is showing are very real.
