Australia Condemns Lurid Tweet by Chinese Official as ‘Disgusting Slur’
The post, with a doctored photograph showing an Australian soldier with a knife to the throat of an Afghan child, sent relations between the two countries to a new low.
By Livia Albeck-Ripka and Austin Ramzy
Nov. 30, 2020
Updated 11:58 a.m. ET
MELBOURNE, Australia — Labeling it a “disgusting slur,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia denounced on Monday what he called a fabricated image posted to Twitter by a Chinese official that showed an Australian soldier with a knife to the throat of an Afghan child.
The post, by Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, followed a damning investigation by the Australian military that found that its troops had unlawfully killed more than three dozen Afghan civilians and prisoners over an 11-year period.
Mr. Zhao’s provocation raised hostilities between the two nations to a new boil. China, fueled by a long list of grievances against Australia, which has taken a leading role in an inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, has retaliated by firing off intensifying threats and stifling its vast imports of Australian products.
