China official Zhao Lijian’s fake news on Manus ‘camps’

Senior Chinese official accuses Morrison government of operating ‘concentration camps’ on Manus Island.

Zhao Lijian also used a Lowy Institute report to claim ‘almost one in five Chinese Australians have been physically threatened or attacked in the past year because of their heritage’. Picture: Reuters

Senior Chinese official Zhao Lijian, who sparked a diplomatic ­furore last year after posting a fake image of an Australian soldier slitting the throat of a young Afghan girl, has launched a new disinformation campaign falsely claiming the Morrison government is operating “concentration camps” on Manus Island.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry deputy director’s claim that “tens of thousands of people from war-torn countries” were being accommodated in overseas deten­tion centres was made despite the Manus Island processing centre closing in 2017 and the Nauru processing centre not currently housing any asylum-seekers.

“The #Australian government built detention centres on the #Manus Island, which ‘accommodates’ tens of thousands of people from war-torn countries. The concentration camps, as some critics call it, are still in operation,” he tweeted.

The #Australian government built detention centers on the #Manus Island, which "accommodates" tens of thousands of people from war-torn countries. The concentration camps, as some critics call it, are still in operation. pic.twitter.com/3p6MKbPrky

— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 24, 2021

In a series of tweets posted on Wednesday, Mr Zhao also used a Lowy Institute report to claim “almost one in five Chinese Australians have been physically threatened or attacked in the past year because of their heritage”.

The Australian can reveal as of last month, the number of refugees and asylum-seekers in PNG and Nauru had fallen to 240, with 960 people resettled in the US, Cambodia and other countries since 2015.

Of those asylum-­seekers and refugees still on the islands, almost all are living in the Port Moresby and Nauru communities.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings described Mr Zhao’s ­social media attacks as “more wolf warrior propaganda”.

“I think what’s significant about it rather than the content which is just pure polemic, is here we have a country aspiring to global leadership which is just slinging insults and abuse around the place, in the spot where there used to be diplomacy,” he said.

Jens Stoltenberg. Picture: AFP

“And China wonders why it’s losing friends all around the world. I think this is a very dangerous stage that the Communist Party has got itself to. But I regret we are going to be stuck with it for some years, as long as Xi Jinping is in power.”

NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday night ­issued a blunt message to China that its 30 member countries would back Australia in countering Chinese bullying and bad ­behaviour.

Following the Morrison government’s calls for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and Beijing’s targeting of Australian exporters, Mr Stoltenberg said “China behaved very badly against Australia”.

In November last year, Mr Zhao sparked a major standoff between Beijing and Canberra and plunged Australia-China relations to their lowest level in almost 50 years after posting an offensive tweet of an Australian soldier, attempting to weaponise the findings of the Brereton Afghanistan inquiry.

At the time, Mr Morrison publicly lashed out at Beijing over its use of a “repugnant” and “appalling” fake image.

China’s attempted shaming of Australia came as Beijing snubbed Morrison ministers and imposed trade sanctions against local exporters, with Chinese officials slapping tariffs, bans and restrictions on Australian coal, wine and ­barley.

China this month said it was “deeply concerned” by the Morrison government’s operation of offshore detention centres and called for them to be shut.

In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, China said the detention centres “fall short of adequate medical conditions where a large number of immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers have been detained over a long period of time or even indefinitely, and their human rights have been ­violated”.

China’s criticism of the offshore immigration centres coincided with Western nations pushing back against Beijing over human rights violations against Uighurs in Xinjiang.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: JACQUELIN MAGNAY