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SYDNEY: The United States has called China’s use of a digitally manipulated image of an Australian soldier a “new low”, influencing the dispute between Canberra and Beijing over the tweet.
China has rejected Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s apology after Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted a photo of an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife to the throat of an Afghan boy on Monday ( November 30).
The Chinese embassy said the “rage and roar” from Australian politicians and media over the image was an overreaction.
But other nations, including the United States, New Zealand and France, have raised concerns about the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s use of the manipulated image on an official Twitter account.
“The CCP’s latest attack on Australia is another example of its rampant use of disinformation and coercive diplomacy. Its hypocrisy is obvious to all,” the US State Department said on Wednesday, adding that while China manipulated images on Twitter, its citizens were prevented from reading Twitter posts.
The department’s deputy spokesperson, Cale Brown, said the fabricated image of the soldier was “a new low, even for the Chinese Communist Party.”
“As the CCP spreads disinformation, it covers up its horrendous human rights abuses, including the detention of more than a million Muslims in Xinjiang,” Brown wrote in a tweet.
France’s foreign affairs spokesman said Tuesday that the tweeted image was “especially shocking” and Zhao’s comments “insulting to all countries whose armed forces are currently in Afghanistan.”
Morrison used the Chinese social media platform WeChat to criticize the “false image.”
In a WeChat message Tuesday night, Morrison wrote that the diplomatic dispute over the soldier’s image “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 special forces in Afghanistan, and said Australia is capable of dealing with “thorny issues” like this in a transparent manner.
Australia has previously said that 19 soldiers will be referred for possible criminal prosecution for the killings of unarmed Afghan civilians and prisoners.
WeChat has 690,000 daily active users in Australia. Morrison’s message had been read by 57,000 WeChat users as of Wednesday.
Zhao’s tweet, placed at the top of his Twitter account, had “liked” 55,000 followers after Twitter labeled it as sensitive content but rejected the Australian government’s request to remove the image.
Twitter is blocked in China, but it has been used by Chinese diplomats who have adopted combative tactics of “wolf warrior diplomacy” this year.
China on Friday imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 200 percent on Australian wine imports, effectively shutting down the largest export market for the Australian wine industry, amid an increasingly serious diplomatic dispute that has seen a series of trade retaliations. imposed by China.
