President-elect Joe Biden, tweeted support for Australia without reference to China. Jake Sullivan, tapped as national security adviser in the incoming administration of U.S. State Department said on Wednesday, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. Its hypocrisy is obvious to all,” the U.S. “The CCP’s latest attack on Australia is another example of its unchecked use of disinformation and coercive diplomacy. 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.
Tencent, the parent company of WeChat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Īustralian special forces allegedly killed 39 unarmed prisoners and civilians in Afghanistan, with senior commandos reportedly forcing junior soldiers to kill defenseless captives in order to “blood” them for combat, a four-year investigation found.Īustralia said last week that 19 current and former soldiers would be referred for potential criminal prosecution.Ĭhina’s embassy has said the “rage and roar” from Australian politicians and media over the soldier image was an overreaction.Īustralia was seeking to “deflect public attention from the horrible atrocities by certain Australian soldiers”, it said. 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.īut 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. Morrison took to WeChat on Tuesday to criticize the “false image,” while offering praise to Australia’s Chinese community. The United States called China’s use of the digitally manipulated image a “new low” in disinformation. SYDNEY-China’s WeChat social media platform 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.Ĭhina 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.
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