Chinese social media platform WeChat on Wednesday blocked a public WeChat post from Australia’s prime minister over a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman’s tweet about Australian soldiers killing Afghan children. Canberra and Beijing are currently embroiled in a diplomatic row over an earlier Twitter post by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian that contained misleading graphic images.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier strongly condemned Zhao Lijian’s posting of the graphic and demanded an apology from the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Embassy in Australia said on Tuesday that some Australian politicians deliberately misinterpreted Zhao Lijian’s tweet with the cartoon and used it to incite nationalism in Australia.
The cartoon, posted by Zhao Lijian on Monday (Nov. 30), shows an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife to the neck of an Afghan child. The United States, France, New Zealand and other countries have condemned the official publication of the misleading cartoon in China. The U.S. called China’s release of the digitally altered cartoons a new level of despicable dissemination of disinformation.
On Tuesday, Morrison issued an open letter to Chinese in Australia via WeChat, criticizing the “false images” and praising Australia’s Chinese community. In the letter, Morrison also defended Australia’s handling of the investigation into the actions of its special forces in Afghanistan, saying it would deal in a transparent manner with “difficult issues” that may involve crimes committed by Australian soldiers.
But by Wednesday evening, Australia time, Morrison’s WeChat public letter had apparently been blocked. A notice released by the platform operation center of the official WeChat account said the open letter cannot be displayed because it involves the use of words, pictures and videos that incite, mislead and contradict objective facts, speculate on hot topics in society, distort historical events and confuse the public.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Wednesday that a reporter asked Prime Minister Morrison last year if his WeChat account would be censored by the Chinese government. Morrison replied, “No. We have not had any such cases so far. We haven’t had any such censorship so far.”
Reuters reports that WeChat has 690,000 daily active users in Australia. WeChat said in September that it would prevent outside forces from interfering with public debate in Australia through its platform when the Australian government issued an inquiry.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday strongly criticized China’s practice of spreading disinformation against Australia, saying, “The Chinese Communist Party’s latest attack on Australia is another example of its reckless use of disinformation and coercive diplomacy.”
Relations between Australia and China have deteriorated sharply since earlier this year when Australia called for an independent investigation into the origin of the new coronavirus outbreak that has spread around the world from China.
The outrageous Twitter post by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian comes after China imposed dumping duties of up to 200 percent on alcohol from Australia, effectively blocking A$1.2 billion worth of Australian alcohol exports to China.
Australia says that this year’s Chinese trade sanctions against Australian products appear to follow a pattern of sanctions linked to Beijing’s diplomatic discontent over Australia’s national security, human rights and foreign policy decisions.
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