Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: VCG

 

Amid the ongoing brawl with China over a cartoon in a tweet, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has turned to WeChat to win support from the Chinese-speaking audience. But his attempt to justify Australian soldiers' atrocity has, according to observers, "shot itself in the foot," as his message, which praised Australian soldiers, sparked aversion and complaints from Chinese readers that eventually led to its removal from the platform.

Chinese social media platform WeChat has the right to deal with articles on the platform according to its rules and regulations, Hua Chunying, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a Thursday conference, in response to the removal of Morrison's latest article from WeChat. 

The post on Morrison's WeChat account on Tuesday said an illustration created by a Chinese cartoonist showing an Australian soldier killing a child was a "fake image." Morrison's WeChat article praised the Australian soldiers, saying "I am extremely proud of all Australians who pull a uniform on for Australia, I am proud of their service…I am proud of their loyalty to this country and its values."

Australian media claimed WeChat "censored" the article as part of a "lasting punishment" by Beijing to threaten Canberra amid bilateral tensions.

However, according to WeChat, the article posted on Tuesday was inaccessible after users made complaints and the platform found that the article "involved the use of words, pictures or videos that would incite, mislead and violate objective facts, fabricate social hot topics, distort historical events and confuse the public," which violated the platform's rules and regulations.

Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre of East China Normal University, pointed out that Morrison's posting of an article on WeChat was "tit-for-tat" in response to another foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian's tweet, as the popular social media platform specifically targets the Chinese audience.

Morrison also mentioned the Chinese-Australian community, saying that the cartoon event will not weaken the respect and appreciation of the Chinese-Australian community, nor will it damage the friendship between the Australian and Chinese people. 

Yet his sudden change of tone failed to win over this community, which called him quite "hypocritical."

Several Australian-Chinese reached by the Global Times on Thursday apparently didn't buy it.

Bruce Du, an Australian-Chinese who has studied and lived in Australia for more than 10 years, expressed "disdain" for the "hypocritical" remarks by Morrison. 

Du told the Global Times on Thursday that he regretted that he voted for Morrison years ago, because he thought Morrison and the Liberal Party could help recover the Australian economy, but the reality proved that he was completely wrong. 

So he didn't vote for the Liberal Party but for the Labor Party in the 2019 Australian election. Du said he also won't vote for the party in the next election.

A father surnamed Zhan, who has decided to give up his Australian nationality and return to China, told the Global Times on Thursday that he had no idea why Morrison suddenly posted those remarks against a "cartoon" and he was disappointed to see China-Australia relations head in a negative direction. 

"One thing about Australia that has attracted me is, everyone is equal to each other regardless of their social status, and everyone has a right to speak. Now it's ridiculous to see that Morrison is avoiding responsibility and shirk it to China." Zhan said.

Chen said that Morrison's softening of tone came after the prime minister saw that he failed to shift blame and divert attention from Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. Instead, his demand for an apology from China stirred up a new wave of accusations over the crimes, which damaged Australia's international image.

Also, the Morrison government is in urgent need of recovering ties with China to ease domestic economic pressure. 

Australia finally shot itself in the foot, Chen noted.

Morrison's account was opened in February 2019 ahead of the Australian election, which was widely regarded as an attempt to woo Chinese voters in Australia.