The image, set against a backdrop of the Australian and Afghan flags, was shared on Monday morning Beijing time from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian’s verified Twitter account with the caption: “Shocked by the murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers.”The tweet comes after a long-awaited official report released on November 19 alleged that elite Australian forces killed 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners unlawfully in an environment where “blood lust” and “competition killings” were allegedly a norm.The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has taken steps toward dismissing 13 soldiers following the report and recommended that federal police investigate 36 alleged war crimes.
“The Australian side reacted so strongly to my colleague’s personal tweet, does it mean to show that it is reasonable for some Australian soldiers to coldly kill the innocent people in Afghanistan and it is not unreasonable for anyone to condemn this cold crime?” she said.In September, the last two reporters from Australian news organizations in China were evacuated after they were aggressively questioned by authorities over a national security case involving Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist working for Chinese state media. Earlier this month, Zhao said the Chinese government bore no blame for the breakdown in relations — instead, Australia’s “wrong moves” were the root cause of relations taking a “sharp downturn.”
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.