Australians have united in bipartisan condemnation of CCP propaganda after one of its “wolf warrior” diplomats posted anti-Australian propaganda to China’s Foreign Ministry Twitter account.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the CCP captioned the post, “Shocked by the murder of Afghan civilians and prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts and call for holding them accountable.”
The propaganda image depicting an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to an Afghan child’s throat, was China riding the leftist media’s giddy, feeding frenzy over the Brereton inquiry report into war crimes allegedly committed by a minority within the SAS while serving in Afghanistan.
Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese have condemned the post.
Anthony Albanese spoke briefly in Parliament saying, ‘he joined with the Prime Minister in his condemnation of the tweet’, adding that ‘Australia’s condemnation of this image is above politics, and we all stand as a nation in condemning it.’
In an official address, Scott Morrison condemned the Tweet, requested its removal from Twitter, and asked for an apology from the Chinese Communist Party.
Like Anthony Albanese, he condemned the Tweet, not the CCP for tweeting it.
This, along with almost every other speech this year, cements the impression that Scott and Anthony seem to only function as CEOs of their party. Not as statesmen who are of, for, and by the people.
It’s not unfair to expect a stronger, less administrative, bureaucratic speech from the P.M.
The CCP are targeting the morale of the ADF, encouraged to do so by their sycophants in “Our” ABC, and others within the Australian legacy media.
As highlighted by Caldron Pool’s editor-in-chief, Ben Davis,
‘What’s also amazing is how the ABC’s report can fuel this sort of thing. A taxpayer-funded news outlet! We’re paying the government to publish propaganda against our own nation.’
Such an attack requires an equally forceful, restrained response. Not a slap on the wrist.
Morrison’s condemnation started out strong. Then stalled. It ended up being a weak, and long-winded, verbose lecture.
Morrison came across as an aloof high school principal, who, knowing full well where his salary comes from, does his best to appease forces, and avoid diplomatic conflict because he’s surrendered himself to the idea that those forces are too powerful to unite his people against.
(See James Morrow’s apt conclusion: ‘Morrison’s statement that China should be “totally ashamed” will get him nowhere with a communist dictatorship that is entirely shameless.’)
Not every politician was a run of the mill. The LNP’s George Christensen – one of Australia’s few straight-talking politicians – took direct aim at the CCP’s tactless hypocrisy, writing:
‘Disgusting and baseless stuff from an outfit that regularly murders Catholics, Christians, Buddhists, Falun Dafa practitioners, political dissidents, democracy activists, Tibetans and Uighurs.’
Likewise, Andrew Hastie (LNP), called it ‘repugnant; offensive to all Australians and a slur on the men and women of the ADF. ‘
The strongest condemnation of all came from One Nation’s, Pauline Hanson.
Hanson told Sky News Australians need to start boycotting Chinese products, advocating that Australians have to “take a strong stance” against the Communist Party’s belligerent bullying in order to “send a clear message to the CCP,” and pro-China businesses in Australia.
The One Nation senator reminded viewers that “this all started because Australia questioned the CCP over the origins of COVID-19…They don’t like being questioned.”
Emilio Garcia, ATA’s Comms director backed the call,
‘the Liberal Party offers vapid condemnations of their favorite trading partner. Pauline Hanson calls for a boycott of Chinese Products. We need more Hansons in Canberra.’
The Sydney Morning Herald’s, Peter Hartcher (who couldn’t help using the opportunity to take a shot at Donald Trump) rightly called the CCP post, ‘juvenile propaganda’, and labelled the decision to use the fake image ‘ISIS level stuff.’
The Daily Telegraph’s Opinion editor, and Outsiders co-host, James Morrow argued that the fake image was a Twitter trap. Then called the CCP out on its long, atrocious human rights abuse record.
He added that the ‘sheer ballsiness’ of the fake image was a deliberate attempt to stoke what he called a ‘wedge between the Australian electorate’ pushing voters ‘into two camps.’
On the ‘one side the China hawks, mostly on the right, who think we should keep going hard in our dealings with the CCP and give them no quarter.’ On the other side, ‘commentators on the Left’ whose function resembles that of a Communist sycophant.
This comes complete with Cold War-era tactical red herrings, which distract from the Communist Party’s blatant “utopian” failures. Including human rights abuses, foreign policy stuff-ups, and its liability over COVID-19, by which attention is also diverted away from the CCP’s belligerent threat to Australia’s sovereignty, Taiwan and the Pacific.
The CCP attack on the morale of the ADF is a byproduct of appeasement and soft diplomacy.
Morrison needs to rally Australians, recalling statesmen like Robert Menzies, Bob Hawk, and the faith of the ANZACs, who pushed back against the dark shroud of totalitarianism that sought to enslave the 20th Century.
As I said at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, we need wartime leadership and that means wartime speeches; more “fight” and a little less “give.”
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