Is crushing Australia's economy

Will Australia stand up to China?

Or back down? 

Welcome back to China  Uncensored. I'm Chris Chappell.

Have you ever wondered what the  world would be like if Twitter had  

never been invented?                           

Perhaps President Hillary Clinton would be  preparing for her second term in office. 

But that's not the world we live in. Instead,  

Twitter was invented. And it's  become an important diplomatic tool. 

And if you're thinking that's a  terrible idea, you would be right.

Relations between China and Australia took another  hit on Monday (November 30), after Prime Minister  

Scott Morrison demanded a fake image posted on a  Chinese official's Twitter account be taken down.

Morrison called a media briefing to condemn the  post which showed an Australian soldier holding  

a knife to the throat of an Afghan child,  and said Canberra was seeking an apology  

from Beijing.   

The Chinese Communist Party was probably  caught off guard by Morrison's demands,  

because the Communist Party is usually the one  that demands apologies from everyone else. 

Which is why China responded that  it was sorry...that Australia sucks.

This was the tweet in question, from Chinese  foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.

This is not a real photo. It's a photo  illustration created by a patriotic  

Chinese artist whose work has been  boosted by Chinese state-run media.

Both the tweet and the image are  about a recent independent report  

commissioned by the Australian government. After  a four-year investigation, the report found that  

Australian special forces soldiers may have  committed up to 39 murders in Afghanistan. 

Those 19 soldiers are now facing  investigation for their alleged war crimes. 

This has been a huge scandal for Australia.  The government has pledged to appoint a special  

investigator to prosecute the cases and  

an independent oversight panel to make  sure the government implements changes. 

Australia has also apologized to Afghanistan.

But as far as the Chinese  Communist Party is concerned,  

this is a great opportunity  to tear down Australia! 

Zhao Lijian's tweet is the latest example of  what's being called “wolf warrior diplomacy.”  

Named after the nationalistic  Wolf Warrior action movies.

Wolf Warrior diplomacy really began after Chinese  diplomats started joining Twitter. Of course.

Yes, Twitter has somehow managed  to make Chinese propaganda  

worse. I didn't think that was even possible.  But then again, twitter makes everything worse.

Zhao Lijian became the most famous wolf  warrior diplomat, after he tweeted back  

in March that the US military could  have brought the coronavirus to China.

Which sparked a lot of media coverage.

Frankly, I don't think we should call this wolf  warrior diplomacy. That makes it sound tough and  

cool. These Chinese officials are just sending  aggressive tweets to get a rise out of people. 

So let's call it what it  is: Troll Face diplomacy. 

Yes, Zhao Lijian and his fellow  diplomats are just internet trolls. 

And like all internet trolls, they  love the attention they're getting.

Now that the Chinese Communist Party has  triggered Australia, the Party is doubling down.

But as hard as the Chinese Communist  Party is trying to pwn Australia,  

the incident they're mocking them for actually  shows a fundamental difference between  

China's authoritarian communist state  and Australia's liberal democracy.

The Australian government started an independent  inquiry into the war crimes allegations.  

The report was released publicly.  There will be further investigations,  

and the individual soldiers involved, the  military, and the Australian government itself  

will all face consequences for their  actions. And the public will know about it.

It's a big contrast to how the  Chinese Communist Party treats,  

for example, any criticism of their  suppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

But this incident is just the  latest in a long string of things  

that have gone wrong between China and Australia.  I'll tell you what those are after the break.

Welcome back. Relations between China  and Australia have been facing a  

sharp downturn. And China, to no one's  surprise, says it's all Australia's fault.

Obviously it's because Australia just can't  appreciate China's goodwill because Australia  

is so evil, according to my favorite  state-run media the Global Times.

Yes, the Chinese Communist Party has  so much goodwill towards Australia.  

Goodwill that they express through:

ramping up a huge trade conflict with Australia;

threatening Australian journalists;

and warning Australia over its  alliances with other countries.

How could Australia be so  ungrateful towards such goodwill?

China's “goodwill” towards Australia started  earlier this year after Australia led calls  

for an international investigation  into the origins of the coronavirus.

Which makes sense, since the Communist  Party is so touchy about the subject  

that they're still trying to insist  that the coronavirus came from Italy.

Or maybe India.

Definitely not from China.

But that coronavirus investigation is hardly  the only problem that China has with Australia.

In fact, last month, the Chinese embassy  gave Australian media a list of 14 reasons  

why China is mad at Australia.

Here's the full list.

It includes everything from banning Huawei  and ZTE from Australia's 5G networks,  

to “incessant wanton interference in China's  Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan affairs.” 

It even includes things that the Australian  government isn't directly responsible for,  

like an Australian think tank publishing a  report on China's use of Uyghurs as forced labor.

And negative news reports on  China from Australian media. 

I mean, if the Chinese Communist Party has  complete control over China's think tanks and  

media, then the Australian government should  control their own think tanks and media, too.

But the real problem that the  Communist Party has with Australia  

goes deeper than that. And I'll tell you  about it after this commercial break.

Welcome back. The current conflict between  the Chinese Communist Party and Australia  

actually goes back to 2017.  That's when the Australian  

government finally realized the extent of  the Chinese Communist Party's infiltration  

in Australian politics and society, and  they started to stand up for Australia.

Australia was the first Western liberal  democracy to expose the Chinese Communist  

Party's influence operations. And that  was a huge problem for the Party. 

And Australia made meaningful changes  to counter China's interference,  

including passing  foreign interference laws. 

Of course, that doesn't mean that China's  influence operations in Australia are over.  

They are definitely still going on.

And we've talked about those a lot on this show.  

We even traveled to Australia  back in 2018 to cover the issue. 

But Australia's actions over the years  have had a huge ripple effect. It started  

the conversation about China's influence  operations in other liberal democracies. 

And the Chinese Communist  Party cannot let that happen.  

Australia has stood up to  the Chinese Communist Party,  

so the Party must crush Australia—or other  countries might start getting ideas, too.

And the main way that the Party can  crush Australia is economically.  

By destroying their exports to China.

Like coal.

And wine.

And lobsters.

So once again Australia becomes a test case  for dealing with the Chinese Communist Party.  

Will they continue to stand up to China, or  will they back down in the face of pressure?

It's not going to be easy.

Especially when you have experts  

warning that an all-out trade war with China  could cost Australia 6 percent of their GDP.

So wouldn't it be a better idea for Australia  to repair its relationship with China?

They could make a friendly gesture, like  joining China's Belt and Road Initiative.

What could go wrong? 

Look, it will be hard for Australia to stand  up to the Chinese Communist Party on its own.  

Which is why its allies should stand by them. 

New Zealand is joining Australia  in denouncing China's tweet.

And America is stepping up to the plate, too. Look  at this tweet from the National Security lCouncil.

“Australian wine will be featured at a White  House holiday reception this week. Pity vino  

lovers in China who, due to Beijing's  coercive tariffs on Aussie vintners,  

will miss out. Hashtag Aussie  Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!

Wow, I can't believe I just read that out loud.  Good for America for supporting Australia.  

Could we just do it...not on Twitter?

And now it's time for me to answer a question  from one of you, a supporter of the show  

on the crowdfunding website  Patreon. Roy E Fitts asks:

Hey Chris, new patron here. if Biden  does win the white house do you  

think the news and proof about the organ  harvesting that's been getting attention  

will be silenced and or discredited  by the Biden administration?

The reality is that the Biden Administration  

wouldn't have to actively silence or  discredit the organ harvesting issue.  

All they would have to do is ignore it, the  same way that previous administrations have.

The Chinese Communist Party has been  harvesting organs from prisoners of  

conscience for more than 20 years now.  And the evidence of that keeps growing. 

But it's much easier for governments,  

and corporations, and people to ignore  that evidence. Because if it were true,  

then we couldn't treat China like a normal country  that we should all be doing business with.  

And based on our recent episode looking  at Biden's foreign policy advisors and  

their views on China, I wouldn't hold my  breath for the Biden administration to  

go around talking about organ harvesting  and why it should be stopped. 

Roy, thanks for your question. Your  

extremely depressing question. And thank  you for being a new patron of the show.

If you'd like to support China Uncensored just  like Roy, join our 50 cent army on Patreon.  

Visit Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored. 

You know, Youtube censorship  has been getting worse lately.  

And we took a risk with this episode by  showing you Zhao Lijian's tweet earlier,  

which could get this episode age restricted  by Youtube. So thank you again for watching,  

sharing, and supporting the show. We  wouldn't be able to do this without you.

Once again I'm Chris Chappell, see you next time.