China forced to apologise after posting a fake photo

Article written and Website edited by Misaki Tomiyama

On Monday, 30th December, Lijian Zhao- Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, posted a fake image of an Australian Soldier with a knife with blood next to a child. (Image will not be posted on this article, for more information about the image and the incident visit- bbc)

This image was posted on the government's twitter account, portraying an Australian soldier, murdering, or about to murder an Afghan child, who was holding a lamb. On the tweet, Lijian Zhao quotes "Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians and prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, and call for holding them accountable."

The relation between the two countries aggravates, as Australis has demanded China for an apology for posting such a fabricated image. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said "It is utterly outrageous and cannot be justified on any basis", "The Chinese government should be utterly ashamed of this post. It diminishes them in the world's eyes." However China responds by saying that Australia wants to "blame China for the worsening of bilateral ties". The Australian government has asked Twitter to remove the image.

(Image by Australian Embassy Jakarta is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Weibo Logo

It is said that the image was fabricated by an artist who often makes politically charged statements, who posted the image on Weibo- popular Chinese social media platform.

Australia and China have had political differences in the past. They first agreed on a valuable trading relationship, that gives imports to China, and income to Australia, and China became Australia's biggest trading partner. However, things have been going downhill since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Australia wants to have an international investigation, on how and why the coronavirus outbreak started in China, and how the country responds to this pandemic. In response to this, China has placed tariffs (tariff- a charge or list of charges either for service or on goods entering a country -Cambridge dictionary) and trade stoppages on products such as beef, wine, etc. Australia, in response to this, has locked Chinese investment projects, criticised the way China treats Uighur Muslims and banned Huawei(Chinese telecommunications company) from the 5G network in Australia. The two countries seem to be aware of the actions they are taking.