[An Australian government report,
published Nov. 19 after a four-year probe, found “credible information” that 25
special forces soldiers unlawfully killed 39 prisoners, farmers and
civilians over several years. More than a dozen soldiers have been dismissed,
and the preliminary findings will now be followed up by a special investigator
and could result in criminal charges.]
By Gerry Shih
Zhao Lijian, the most prominent of
Beijing’s outspoken “wolf warrior” diplomats, was referring in the tweet to an
Australian inquiry into alleged war crimes by its soldiers in
Afghanistan. As Chinese-Australian relations have plummeted this year, Zhao has
sharply criticized Australia regarding both its economic dealings and its
conduct in Afghanistan. Russia, too, has cited Afghanistan as an example of
what it calls the West’s failings and hypocrisy on the global stage.
An Australian government report,
published Nov. 19 after a four-year probe, found “credible information” that 25
special forces soldiers unlawfully killed 39 prisoners, farmers and
civilians over several years. More than a dozen soldiers have been dismissed,
and the preliminary findings will now be followed up by a special investigator
and could result in criminal charges.
[China sharply ramps up trade
conflict with Australia over political grievances]
Zhao told a daily news briefing on
Friday that the Australian report “fully exposed the hypocrisy of the ‘human
rights’ and ‘freedom’ these Western countries are always chanting.” His
counterpart in Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, echoed the
sentiment in a jab at the West, saying that the report called into question the
“true meaning” of the Australian government’s calls to “protect the rules-based
world order.”
Zhao went further on Monday by tweeting an illustration by the nationalist Chinese artist known as Wuheqilin that showed an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of a child, who is clutching a lamb, while standing over the Australian and Afghan flags. “Don’t worry, we are coming to bring you peace,” the artwork’s caption says.
“Shocked by murder of Afghan
civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such
acts, & call for holding them accountable,” Zhao said in his tweet, which
he pinned to the top of his account.
The artwork appeared to be a
heavily manipulated composite of a photograph and stylized digital
illustration. After Zhao posted it, it immediately sparked an uproar, not only
because of its grisly nature but also because it was not immediately clear whether
it was based on a real photo of a killing. Australian Prime Minister Scott
Morrison called the tweet a “falsified image” and “repugnant” and asked Twitter
to remove it.
“The Chinese government should be
totally ashamed of this post,” Morrison said. “There are undoubtedly tensions
that exist between China and Australia, but this is not how you deal with
them.”
Zhao’s tweet outraged and
galvanized Australians. Senior opposition politician Penny Wong said in
Parliament it was not the behavior of a “responsible, mature international
power.” Acting immigration minister Alan Tudge, who argued publicly that the
Chinese Communist Party does not speak for ethnic Chinese abroad, issued
a statement calling the tweet
“shameful and offensive to all Australians.”
“This evening I hosted a
teleconference with Chinese Australian community leaders from around the
country, and every one of them was just as appalled by the fake image,” he said.
“The post does not reflect the views of the more than 1.2 million Australians
of Chinese heritage who have chosen to make Australia their home.”
The Chinese government and state
media in recent months have fiercely targeted Australia with criticism and
economic punishment for what they perceive to be Canberra’s involvement in a
U.S.-led Western effort to contain China. Beijing has been particularly
incensed by Australian criticism of its crackdown in the tense peripheral
regions of Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and a new faction of assertive “wolf
warrior” officials has risen up in the past year to stridently push back and
slam the West as hypocritical and meddlesome.
[A
U.S.-China detente under Biden? Beijing isn’t betting on it.]
As Western criticism has ramped up
since 2018 over China’s assimilation campaign targeting its Muslim
population, Chinese officials have increasingly pointed to the human and
economic toll of the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as a
counterargument.
The picture that Zhao tweeted on
Monday was drawn by an artist in Beijing, known only on social media as
Wuheqilin. He came to prominence in Beijing last summer after he drew
illustrations condemning the Hong Kong protest movement as blindly worshiping
the West, and he became feted in the nationalist, state-run Global Times
newspaper as a “wolf warrior artist.”
It’s not the first time Zhao, a
pioneer with his cavalier use of Twitter within a traditionally hidebound
Chinese bureaucracy, has weighed in on U.S. foreign policy on the platform. On
Thanksgiving Day in 2019, he tweeted sardonically that he wanted to “pay
special thanks to US for squandering trillions of dollars in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya, Syria.” He also accused the United States of criticizing China’s
Xinjiang policies while wrestling with racial segregation — which sparked a
spat with former national security adviser Susan E. Rice. This year, he
launched a tweetstorm speculating that U.S. soldiers brought the novel coronavirus into Wuhan and seeded the pandemic,
outraging Trump administration officials.
[In
China-U.S. showdown, Beijing’s steely propagandist sharpens her attack]
Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman, defended her colleague on Monday and dismissed Morrison’s calls
for an apology. The illustration Zhao tweeted drew from the Australian
military’s report, which included details about how soldiers allegedly blindfolded
and killed teenagers, Hua said, and she demanded that Canberra own up to its
crimes.
“It’s justified for Australian
soldiers to coldly kill innocent civilians in Afghanistan, but it’s
unreasonable for people to condemn this cold crime?” she said. “You say the
Chinese government should feel ashamed, but what about the Australian
government that sent troops to Afghanistan? Australian soldiers committed such
atrocious crimes. Shouldn’t the Australian government feel ashamed?”
Pervasive rumors of war crimes
circulated for years within some Australian military units and were reported
internally up the chain of command by whistleblowers, including an army lawyer,
Maj. David McBride. The allegations were first aired publicly in 2017 after McBride leaked
internal documents to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. McBride is awaiting
trial on charges of unlawful disclosure of government documents.
Aside from Australia, the
International Criminal Court (ICC) is also investigating alleged war crimes by
American forces over strong objections from the U.S. government. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo imposed sanctions in September on ICC
prosecutor Fatou Bensouda for probing U.S. conduct, which drew condemnation
from human rights groups and the United Nations.
Read more
China
sharply ramps up trade conflict with Australia over political grievances
A
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