Foreign Desk Report
SYDNEY: The Chinese social media platform WeChat blocked a message by Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison amid a dispute between Canberra and Beijing over the doctored tweeted image of an Australian soldier.
China rebuffed Morrison’s calls for an apology after its foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted the picture of an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child on Monday.
The United States called China’s use of the digitally manipulated image a “new low” in disinformation.
Morrison took to WeChat on Tuesday to criticise the “false image”, while offering praise to Australia’s Chinese community.
In his message, Morrison defended Australia’s handling of a war crimes investigation into the actions of special forces in Afghanistan, and said Australia would deal with “thorny issues” in a transparent manner.
But that message appeared to be blocked by Wednesday evening, with a note appearing from the “Weixin Official Accounts Platform Operation Center” saying the content was unable to be viewed because it violated regulations, including distorting historical events and confusing the public. Tencent, the parent company of WeChat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Australian special forces allegedly killed 39 unarmed prisoners and civilians in Afghanistan, with senior commandos reportedly forcing junior soldiers to kill defenceless captives in order to “blood” them for combat, a four-year investigation found. Australia said last week that 19 current and former soldiers would be referred for potential criminal prosecution.
China’s embassy has said the “rage and roar” from Australian politicians and media over the soldier image was an overreaction. Australia was seeking to “deflect public attention from the horrible atrocities by certain Australian soldiers”, it said.
Other nations, including the United States, New Zealand and France – and the self-ruled island of Taiwan which China claims as its own – have expressed concern at 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 unchecked use of disinformation and coercive diplomacy. Its hypocrisy is obvious to all,” the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party.
