we start with the significant worsening
of relations between
china and australia beijing has defended
one of its officials who tweeted a
fake photograph showing an australian
soldier holding a knife to an afghan
child's throat
the tweet containing the fate image was
posted on a government account and as
you can see here
twitter has put a warning of sensitive
content on the tweet
it does still allow people though to
click and see the image
which we've pixelated out the disturbing
scene here
the image prompted in outcry in canberra
with prime minister scott morrison
demanding the tweet be deleted
he's also asked for an apology from
beijing this is what mr morrison told a
media briefing
the posts made today the repugnant post
made today of an image a falsified image
of an australian soldier threatening
a young child with a knife
a post made on an official chinese
government twitter account
posted by the deputy director general
of the ministry of foreign affairs
mr li jian zhao
is truly repugnant it is
deeply offensive to every australian
well in beijing for us following
developments is steve mcdonald and in
sydney our correspondent shaima khalil
who told me how
the situation between the two countries
is really deteriorating now
eulogy in a very already very very tense
relationship and i know we keep saying
that we keep saying
it's getting worse but that's because it
is every time now
there is a headline with australia and
china relations we almost know
immediately it's going to be bad news
and look
the fact that xiaolian actually
condemned the findings of that report
the alleged war crimes report
about the australian special forces at
being involved in 39 unlawful attack
unlawful killings during the war in
afghanistan the fact that he condemned
that
isn't quite shocking because he said
that last week he actually used the
findings
to accuse australia of double standards
when it comes to
uh human rights violations i think it's
the fact of that doctored image the fact
that this image was used
by a chinese official foreign ministry
spokesperson
used on an official chinese government
twitter account
and that the image itself is quite
inflammatory as you described it it is
it depicts an australian soldier with
a knife put against an afghan child's
throat with the australian and afghan
flags
in the background that has clearly
pushed scott morrison to use some of the
strongest language
that we've heard him use against china
he called he said that the chinese
government should be ashamed of yourself
demanded an apology
didn't get one and said that it was um
it was a slur
and that twitter should put that down
that didn't happen
but i think the context to it as well is
quite complex look this comes at a very
sensitive time
for australia the country the military
even the public and the government
they're still reeling from the findings
of that report
the fact that 19 sas soldiers could
could be facing uh could be facing court
charges could be getting could be facing
prosecution
because of those murders all of this
makes for a very bleak picture and the
fact that this comes
at very heightened tensions not just
politically and diplomatically but also
trade tensions
between the two countries all of that
makes for a very bleak picture
in relations between china and australia
i will say this though which is worth
noting that despite that open fury
by scott morris and he still left a
little bit of room for diplomatic
maneuver he said
that he hoped that this will will
inspire a reset
in relations he said he hoped that
there's still room for dialogue but
judging by
uh by china's tone by china's rhetoric i
don't think he's getting one anytime
soon
absolutely well steve tell us more about
that scott morrison calling it
repugnant demanding an apology we've had
the daily
briefing to the media in beijing what
was said
yeah well hua chunying was the
spokesperson
today and what she said is that it's not
china who should be ashamed
in all of this but australia i think
beijing
thinks it's on a bit of a winner here
actually
so after that tweet from jolly jen
he wasn't at the press conference today
but his colleague hua chen ying was
and what she said is i'll just read a
couple of lines she was asking
rhetorically well
you know has the australian military
conducted such terrible crimes in
afghanistan
uh have they killed people in this
cold-blooded way
and i think that they're able to gain
some
traction on social media by
posing questions like this you know
it is interesting though we also asked
the
spokesperson does this have anything to
do with the
overall collapse in relations between
canberra and beijing and no we were told
it actually
it's a it's a separate matter this isn't
to do with all these other fronts on
which china and australia are fighting
one another
but interestingly i did ask the
spokeswoman at one point well
this does seem to mark a bit of a change
in beijing's position because
china's always saying we don't get
involved in other people's
internal affairs and so therefore you
shouldn't be getting involved in our
internal affairs now obviously
this doesn't have anything to do with
china it's australia and afghanistan
and so i asked maybe this represents a
change in
beijing's approach well the
spokes woman was it was actually sort of
um what in
a way quite uh upset almost by this line
of questioning
suggesting that it wasn't worthy of the
bbc to be asking this and
wondering whether it was because i was
an australian citizen
perhaps i was sort of seeking to divert
people's attention from the issues at
hand
and i reassured her that no in fact that
it was a genuine question because it
does
seem to represent a shift in beijing's
thinking if it's going to start
making statements about all these events
all over the world which don't involve
china nevertheless i mean i i don't
imagine how much
worse relations could get between china
and australia when you have this
type of thing being placed on social
media when you have such strong language
going back and forth between canberra
and beijing
and if scott morrison thinks that you
know this
could be the start of a reset i i
i mean it seems like we're a long way
from that at the moment i can't see
anything from this end
which would indicate beijing's
preparedness to start to
really mend relations with australia
just yet yeah the relationship really at
a new low there steve
sheimer thank you both very much for
joining us