Zhao Lijian: Chinese foreign ministry spokesman who launched ‘repugnant’ attack on Australia

The Chinese politician who sent out a “repugnant” doctored tweet has an eight-year history of tangling with westerners and pushing conspiracies.

Zhao Lijian, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, put himself at the centre of a global spotlight after he launched an “appalling” and “outrageous” attack on Australia yesterday.

Taking to Twitter yesterday, Zhao tweeted a doctored photo of an Australian soldier with his knife pressed against an Afghan child’s throat.

“Don’t be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace,” the caption read, with bodies hidden under a crumpled Australian flag.

Australian prosecutors are currently investigating 19 members of the military in connection with alleged war crimes committed by special forces in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.

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The falsified image posted by Zhao Lijian.

Zhao, 48, has been arguing and lashing out at other nations via Twitter since he joined in 2010.

The current deputy director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department, Zhao gained notoriety during his time serving as counsellor and minister counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan.

But Zhao truly rose to prominence last year when he took to Twitter to defend Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs, a Muslim minority in the far western Chinese territory of Xinjiang.

Zhao specifically took aim at the US, who has been a vocal critic of the mass detentions of Uighurs, by bringing up America’s list of social issues.

“If you’re in Washington, D.C., you know the white never go to the SW area, because it’s an area for the black & Latin. There’s a saying ‘black in & white out’.”

The tweet prompted Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser, to call him a “racist disgrace”.

You are a racist disgrace. And shockingly ignorant too. In normal times, you would be PNGed for this.

Ambassador Cui, I expect better of you and your team. Please do the right thing and send him home. https://t.co/KIKanBjQ2L

— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) July 15, 2019

Zhao has long been identified as a prominent leader of the new generation of China‘s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomats.

Regarded as an aggressive style of diplomacy, the ‘wolf warrior’ term was coined from a Rambo-style Chinese action film, Wolf Warrior 2.

The slogan of the move, taken from the Han dynasty was: “Whoever offends China will be punished, no matter how far they are.”

The diplomatic practice was in stark contrast to the way Chinese diplomats behaved before the 21st century, which emphasised avoidance of controversy.

Wolf warriors instead are increasingly waging propaganda wars with other countries – and using western social media platforms to do it.

RELATED: Startling hypocrisy of China’s sick picture over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Picture: Kyodo News via Getty Images

Natasha Kassam, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, told ABC’s AM this morning that the irony of it was Twitter was banned in China.

“It's not what we would have considered to be usual, even just a year ago, where China and Chinese officials had almost no diplomatic presence on Twitter,” she told the radio program.

“But today, Chinese diplomats on Twitter look very different — there are hundreds of them, that spend a lot of their time bickering with Western officials, promoting conspiracies about the coronavirus and often calling out what they perceive to be human rights abuses in other countries.

“Of course, Twitter is blocked in China, and so these officials are not talking to their own public but to the rest of the world.

“But at the same time, they're often using Twitter to call out hypocrisy, or what they see as hypocrisy in other countries.

“Of course, that original hypocrisy is that they're using a medium that they do censor in China.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in Beijing on April 8, 2020. Picture: Greg Baker/AFP

Zhao also uses Twitter to spread conspiracy theories – specifically on coronavirus.

In March of this year, when coronavirus had begun devastating global populations, Zhao tweeted a disproved conspiracy theory that the United States military might’ve brought coronavirus to China.

“When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation,” he wrote.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday denounced the tweet as “repugnant”, “outrageous” and “appalling” and demanded Beijing formally apologise.

“It is utterly outrageous and it cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever. The Chinese government should be totally ashamed of this post,” Mr Morrison said of the tweet.

“It diminishes them in the world’s eyes.”

Asked about the tweet at a regular press briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying replied: “With Australian soldiers committing such atrocious crimes, shouldn’t the Australian government feel ashamed?”

She said Australia should “make a formal apology to the Afghan people”, adding that “it is a fact that Australian soldiers brutally slaughtered innocent civilians in Afghanistan”.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said earlier in November that Morrison had called him personally to express his “deepest sorrow” over the allegations.

Scott Morrison addressing the media in relation to the Zhao Lijian tweet.

Relations between Australia and China are in free fall.

China has introduced a string of economic sanctions on Australian goods and state-controlled news outlets have repeatedly attacked Australia over a range of issues.

The ill feeling appears to have been prompted by Canberra’s decision to push back on Beijing’s growing power in the region, to crack down on Chinese influence operations Down Under and to call for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

“This sort of conduct is not conducive to any relationship,” Mr Morrison said of the tweet. “That’s why I think it’s so important in our mutual interests that this egregious act be dealt with.”