‘Standing with war criminals’: China lashes Aussie allies

Aussie allies have called out China’s “disinformation” campaign, but Beijing’s swift reaction has been unbelievable.

Australia’s allies have swung in behind it after China’s “disinformation” campaign with the doctored image, sparking Beijing to lash out at them for “standing on the side of war criminals”.

China has refused to back down after its foreign ministry posted a fake image to Twitter of an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child, in reference to the Brereton Report into alleged war crimes.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison reached out to Chinese-Australians with a message in Mandarin posted to WeChat, to pre-emptively ease any tensions with the local community.

Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye. China has lashed out at Australian allies who condemned its foreign ministries offensive image. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

US State Department deputy spokesman Cale Brown said the image as “a new low” from the Chinese Community Party. “The CCP’s latest attack on Australia is another example of its unchecked use of disinformation and coercive diplomacy,” he said.

The French government described the image, posted by China’s foreign ministry spokes­man Zhao Lijian, as “unworthy” of diplomatic methods and “insulting to all countries whose armed forces” had been engaged in Afghanistan. But this prompted swift rebuke from China’s embassy in France. “France does not condemn the atrocities of war that tore and kill civilians, but instead accuses those who denounce the atrocities,” China’s French embassy spokesperson said.

China’s state-run media the Global Times lashed out at New Zealand: “Kiwis bleat like Aussie sheep” for saying Mr Zhao’s tweet was “not factually correct”.

A spokesman for the UK’s foreign secretary said they would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Australia.