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Xi Jinping and Scott Morrison appear to be not seeing eye to eye these days

Features
From furious insults to WeChat censorship, a spat between China and
Australia over a controversial tweet has escalated into an online tit-for-tat in
recent days.

The catalyst for the row, posted by a top Chinese government official, was a
fake image.

But the diplomatic fall-out has been all too real, plunging an already fragile
relationship between the two countries further into the abyss.

Warning: This story contains an image some people might find distressing.
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Australia demands China apology for 'repugnant' post Nazi
China defends gruesome Australia tweet

The year when Australia and China hit 'lowest ebb'

'Truly repugnant'
It all began with that shocking tweet.

On Monday China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted this fake 'I had surgery to be three inches
image on Twitter, responding to a damning report about alleged Australian taller'
war crimes in Afghanistan.

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We've blurred out a part of it, but the picture shows a grinning Australian
soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child.

"Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We

strongly condemn such acts, and call for holding them accountable," he wrote.

Less than two hours later, a furious Scott Morrison, Australia's prime minister,
was on national television demanding an apology from Beijing. Deploying his
most undiplomatic language to date, he called it "truly repugnant, deeply
offensive, utterly outrageous".
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He added that Australia had established a transparent process to investigate done so far?
the alleged war crimes, as was expected of a "democratic, liberal" country.

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Scott Morrison said the post was a "shameful" and "appalling" action

However, he also appealed for China to answer Australia's calls for diplomatic
talks, asking them "to re-engage".

Beijing seemed less keen: a few hours later, the riposte came from Hua
Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman. "It's not China which
should be ashamed, but Australia," she said.

On Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, the artist behind the image School during Covid: 'Got to work
chimed in too, posting that he hadn't expected "Old Morrison" to reply. twice as hard'
It didn't take long for other countries to wade in, many taking Australia's side.

France called the image "shocking and insulting" to countries which had
fought in Afghanistan, New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern said she'd raised
concerns with China about the "unfactual post", while over in the US, the State
Department's deputy spokesman had this to say:

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View original tweet on Twitter

Even the White House National Security Council took a potshot, referring to
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But there was no apology forthcoming from China - only a resolute doubling-
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To Australia, it had this to say: "The accusations made are simply to serve two Brexit stalemate: Boris
purposes. One is to deflect public attention from the horrible atrocities by Johnson and Ursula Von Der
2
certain Australian soldiers. The other is to blame China for the worsening of Leyen seek to break trade
bilateral ties." deal deadlock

And to France, it pointed to the country's robust defence of the right to World's biggest iceberg
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neo-Nazi who became an 10
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anti-Nazi
View original tweet on Twitter

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The spat ventured into new territory on Tuesday - literally - as Mr Morrison
took the rare step of using the Chinese messaging platform WeChat to appeal
to Chinese people, in particular the sizeable community living in Australia.

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View original tweet on Twitter

The diplomatic dispute "does not diminish respect and appreciation for the
Chinese community in Australia", he wrote, while also reiterating earlier
criticism of the false image and defending Australia's handling of the war
crimes probe.

A blocked message and a 'tiger's

backside'
By Wednesday morning, Mr Morrison's message had been read by 50,000
WeChat users.

However, by that very evening his post was scrubbed by WeChat. A note from
the platform's operation centre said the content violated regulations,
including "distorting historical events and confusing the public".

Then, in Chinese state media, this editorial and cartoon appeared.

The Global Times newspaper had this to say: "Some Western people are very
unaccustomed to criticism from Chinese people. The West seems like a tiger
that no one dares touch its backside.

"Satirical cartoons include artistic exaggerations. It has made Australian

officials uncomfortable. But think about it: How many times has the West
produced cartoons that offend some non-Western people?... Why can't they
accept it when the Chinese Foreign Ministry follows up with criticism?"

Mr Morrison, meanwhile, was le dealing with a Twitter pile-on as angry

Chinese netizens demanded he apologise and back down.

So what's all this really about?

This war of words does not come from nowhere. Ties between Australia and
China were already fractured to begin with. Earlier this year, Canberra's call for
a probe into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic triggered an angry response
from Beijing.

Accusations have flown from both sides on matters including espionage and
press freedoms, while economic sanctions have been deployed too.

But this "tweet war" brings the dispute into a new sphere, notes Professor
James Laurenceson from the Australia China Relations Institute.

He thinks the tweet from Mr Zhao was bait and the escalation was in some
ways inevitable given that social media can be fertile ground for "emotional
responses rather than cool rational ones".

"Zhao has a track record. He's done this to several countries before. So I think
it was a bit of trolling," he told the BBC.

China’s new brand of tough-talking diplomats

But he noted that the Australian premier's stiff response was also a sort of
"confirmation that the trolling works".

"Our response was in order, but it probably wasn't the cool, calm response that
we needed," Prof Laurenceson added.

No one really knows what will happen next in this new diplomatic battlefield.
Earlier this week, Twitter declined Canberra's request to remove the fake
image that started it all, although it has been labelled as sensitive content.

Meanwhile, the tweet remains proudly pinned to the top of Mr Zhao's Twitter
account - where it has been "liked" nearly 65,000 times.

Reporting by Preeti Jha and Frances Mao

Related Topics

Australia China Diplomacy

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