Australian Prime Minister Morrison said today (30) that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lijian Zhao posted a fake picture of Australian soldiers carrying a knife on the neck of Afghan children on Twitter, and Australia has asked the Beijing authorities to apologize.
According to a Reuters report, Morrison stated that Australia has requested the removal of this very offensive picture on Lijian Zhao Twitter account.
Morrison told the media at the press briefing: This is very shocking, and there is no excuse to justify this behavior. The Chinese government should be very ashamed of this post.
He said that countries around the world are paying attention to how Beijing authorities respond to the rising tensions in Australia-China relations.
The Australian News Network reported that the incident that this provocative image refers to is a recent report in Australia exposing the illegal killing of civilians and prisoners by Australian soldiers while in Afghanistan.
Lijian Zhao tweeted: The killing of Afghan civilians and prisoners by the Australian army is shocking. We strongly condemn this behavior and demand that they be held accountable.