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The picture, set in opposition to 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.”
Morrison mentioned Australia wished an apology from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and had additionally contacted Twitter asking the social media large to take the publish down.
“It is a false picture and a horrible slur on our nice protection forces and the women and men who served in that uniform for over 100 years.”
CNN has contacted Twitter for remark.
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.
ADF Chief Gen. Angus Campbell has said there had been a “warrior tradition” among some members of Australia’s special forces serving in Afghanistan.
The ADF dismissed 13 soldiers following the report and recommended that federal police conduct an investigation into 36 alleged war crimes.
When asked about the tweet at a press conference Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying accused Australia of committing serious crimes in Afghanistan.
“The Australian facet reacted so strongly to my colleague’s private tweet, does it imply to indicate that it’s cheap for some Australian troopers to coldly kill the harmless folks in Afghanistan and it’s not unreasonable for anybody to sentence this chilly crime?” she said.
“What the Australian authorities ought to do is to assume completely, convey the perpetrators to justice, make a proper apology to the Afghan folks, and solemnly promise to the worldwide group that they are going to by no means commit this horrible crime once more.”
Deteriorating relations
The Chinese government dubbed Morrison’s proposal “political manipulation.”
Since May, lucrative Australian exports to China — including wine, barley and beef — have faced obstacles from Beijing, including high tariffs, anti-subsidy investigations and lengthy delays clearing customs.
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 “fallacious strikes” were the root cause of relations taking a “sharp downturn.”
In Monday’s press conference, Morrison acknowledged the “tensions” in the relationship between Australia and China, but he said the way to deal with those was with dialogue.
“I’d hope that this fairly terrible occasion hopefully might result in the sort of reset the place this dialogue could be restarted,” he said. “This shouldn’t be the way you cope with them.”
CNN’s Ben Westcott contributed reporting.
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