Facing a demand for an apology, Chinese artist Wuheqilin creates a new illustration in response to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: Wuheqilin

Australian broadcaster Chris Smith's recent use of "whataboutism" to defend Aussie troops' war crimes in Afghanistan and hit back at China were mocked by Chinese netizens, after he used a series of examples such as the killing of Communist Party of China (CPC) members, committed by the former Republic of China (ROC) regime, to attack the current Chinese government.

A Chinese analyst said that the broadcaster is not alone in Australian media today, and the Australian government obviously lacks common sense and basic historical knowledge but still "tries their best" to smear China. 

Such malicious rumors can mislead the public and hype up anti-China sentiment in Australia, the analyst warned.

Smith, a broadcaster on Australian far-right media outlet Sky News, on Monday used a series of examples to accuse China of being unqualified to condemn Australian troops over the war crime of killing Afghan civilians. Smith used examples such as the Kuomintang Party (KMT)'s massacre of CPC members in 1927 and the KMT's scorched-earth policy during the War of the Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) which led to the burning down of Changsha city and caused Chinese civilian casualties.

All these crimes were committed by the former ROC regime and the CPC was the victim. The CPC eventually defeated the ROC regime to liberate the Chinese mainland and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, so using those examples to debate with China actually praises the PRC and the CPC, and that's why Smith was widely mocked on Chinese social media networks.

Smith also claimed that the atrocities committed by Australian soldiers were a "very small number of incidents" in an attempt to justify the poor discipline and inhumanity of Australia's armed forces and the unwarranted provocations by many politicians against China.

The bizarre examples above were later cut out and the title of the video has been changed on Sky News Australia's channel, but the full video is still available on the media's YouTube page.

Chinese netizens found it difficult to control their laughter at Smith's remarks.

A netizen said "the current authority of the island of Taiwan must be embarrassed by the silly Australian broadcaster's speech."

Many others urged the broadcaster to read some more books and do more homework before opening his mouth to attack China.

Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Sky News is a far-right and anti-China media outlet that usually spreads sensational, provocative and groundless news.

However, this kind of media outlet has a market in Australia even though they are not respectful at all, Chen said.

The ignorant and anti-China sentiment spread by far-right Australian media will mislead the public and hype up sinophobia in the country, Chen warned.