Daniel Andrews condemns Chinese government tweet as ‘wrong, appalling’

Daniel Andrews has chimed in after the Chinese government shared a sick doctored image of an Aussie soldier on Twitter.

Daniel Andrews has condemned the Chinese government for releasing a graphic fake image of an Australian soldier slitting a child’s throat on Twitter.

The Victorian Premier slammed the tweet as “wrong and appalling” and said it was “no way to run a productive partnership”.

“The time has come surely now for everyone to take a breath and sit down and to work through the issues,” Mr Andrews told reporters on Wednesday morning.

“I would have thought that the relationship was much more important for both Australia, and China than to allow it to get to that point.

“The Prime Minister and I talked about that yesterday that there’s no place for commentary like that, there’s no place for social media posts like that.”

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian released the tweet on Monday.

Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, &call for holding them accountable. pic.twitter.com/GYOaucoL5D

— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) November 30, 2020

It appeared to be a reference to rumours members of Australia’s SAS cut the throats of two 14-year-old Afghan boys who they suspected were Taliban sympathisers.

Scott Morrison then held a press conference on Monday afternoon, saying the post was “deeply offensive, appalling” and the “Chinese government should be totally ashamed”.

“It is deeply offensive to every Australian who has served in that uniform, every Australian who serves in that uniform today,” he said.

Beijing's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian posted a falsified image of an Australian soldier slitting the throat of a child.

Mr Andrews maintained he was not critical of the commonwealth government’s handling of the tensions between the two countries.

“I’m just making a broader point, all of us, including China need to acknowledge that this sort of behaviour is not on,” he said.

“This is an important relationship. And it’s not like it’s all one way. There’s a lot of Victorian jobs riding on this, but there’s an awful lot of benefit that China derives from this partnership as well.

“We should sit down and work through those issues and not be not be drawn into some of this other stuff, which is just absolutely appalling and does not speak to a mature relationship.”

The Premier also defended his government’s agreement under China’s belt and road initiative despite tensions between the two nations, saying it was in the state’s “best interests to continue to have our products going to our biggest customer”.