China and the Australian War Crimes. .
On December 01, 2020, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said:
The Australian Government should do some soul searching and bring the culprits to justice, and offer an official apology to the Afghan people and make the solemn pledge that they will never repeat such crimes,” . https://www.chinadailyhk.com/article/151033
On the release of the Brereton report into alleged war crimes, the chief of the Australian Defence Force, General Angus Campbell, offered an unreserved apology to the people of Afghanistan for soldiers’ actions.
This was on 19 Nov 2020, two weeks before the Chinese said that Australia should apologise.
Detailing the findings, General Angus Campbell, chief of the Defence Force, said the investigation found evidence that members of the Australian special forces had killed prisoners, farmers or other civilians, and offered his unreserved apologies to the people of Afghanistan for any wrongdoing.
Note, that was on 19 Nov 2020.
He also said soldiers accused of committing war crimes would be dealt with under Australia’s justice system.
Currently 19 Australian soldiers are being referred for criminal investigation and likely prosecution.
Since 2016, the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force has examined allegations of war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.
Over four years, Justice Paul Brereton interviewed more than 400 witnesses and examined tens of thousands of documents.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/chinese-government-refuses-apology-image-australian-soldier/12936154
Australia appears to be very open about following through on investigations into war crimes.
Some other countries hide theirs under the carpet and pretend it never happens.
However it does appear to have taken a long time, with the worst actions happening in 2012-13. But that does seem reasonable to ensure only the guilty, not the innocent, face charges.
Some people are making this a political situation, blaming the current government for the military actions in 2012-13, but it should be remembered that the Liberal party only took over from the Labor party on 7 September 2013. Labor had been the ruling party from November 2007 to September 2013.
It is an Australian issue, regardless of politics, and appears to involve a few SAS soldiers, with a disregard for normal Australian rules.
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The Chinese artist behind a doctored image of an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child has taunted the Australian Prime Minister, saying that he would make another artwork in response to being “scolded”.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/doctored-image-of-australian-soldier-tweeted-by-chinese-diplomat/12938244
Mr Fu created the controversial computer graphic on the evening of November 22, according to China’s state-owned media Global Times.
Chinese-Australian artist Badiucao, said Mr Fu was regarded as a “semi-official propaganda artist”, whose works were used to attack different opinions about China and welcomed by the publicity machines of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).