US and France weigh in on bitter China-Australia tweet row over Afghanistan image but Beijing holds firm

Deputy spokesman for the US State Department says Zhao Lijian’s tweet is an example of China’s ‘use of disinformation and coercive diplomacy’

The Chinese embassy in Paris accuses France of hypocrisy for championing ‘the right to caricature’ but not extending that right to a Chinese artist

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On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted an image by artist Wuheqilin critical of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Other nations are commenting on the tweet row, accusing China of heavy-handed diplomacy. Photo: AP

Published: 4:01pm, 2 Dec 2020Updated: 11:26pm, 2 Dec 2020

More countries are weighing in on the public rift between China and Australia over a controversial tweet as tensions – which were already high because of trade bans by Beijing – continue to escalate.

Cale Brown, deputy spokesman for the US State Department, said the tweet by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian featuring a digital illustration of an Australian soldier appearing to murder a child in Afghanistan, was “another example of its unchecked use of disinformation and coercive diplomacy”.

“This is a new low, even for the Chinese Communist Party,” Brown posted on his Twitter account on Wednesday morning. “Its hypocrisy is obvious to all. While it doctors images on @Twitter to attack other nations, the CCP prevents its own citizens from reading their posts.”

Brown said the US stood with its Australian ally.

US State Department deputy spokesman Cale Brown. Photo: AFP

“As the CCP spreads disinformation, it covers up its horrendous human rights abuses, including the detention of more than a million Muslims in Xinjiang,” Brown tweeted.

The comments by Brown came as more countries stepped in to the latest diplomatic row between China and Australia, which had already been locked in a bitter feud over the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and Beijing’s trade restrictions on a number of Australian exports before Zhao’s tweet on Monday. There are no signs of the diplomatic conflict easing.