China has accused Australia of “unfounded denigration and smear” over claims it hijacked Scott Morrison’s WeChat social media account.
China has accused Australia of “unfounded denigration and smear” over claims it hijacked Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s WeChat social media account.
The takeover of the Prime Minister’s social media account has now made international news after Australia accused China of interfering with the account amid rising political tensions.
But China‘s Foreign Minister Zhao Lijian flatly rejected those claims, insisting it was a matter between the Prime Minister and the Chinese company.
“The accusation of China interference is nothing but unfounded denigration and smear,” he said.
The Morrison government claims it has repeatedly tried to regain control of the account but WeChat’s parent company Tencent has refused to respond to its requests.
More than a dozen Australian politicians have previously used WeChat accounts registered in other people’s names in China but conservatives are now threatening to boycott the platform.
Huang Aipeng, the chief executive of Fuzhou 985 Information Technology, which now controls the account, told the ABC that he bought the account last year and had no idea who Scott Morrison was.
“He [Mr Ji] didn’t tell me who was using the account,” said Mr Huang.
“I don‘t even know who [Scott] Morrison is, I saw the account has a lot of followers, so we bought it.”
While Scott Morrison hasn’t publicly commented on the WeChat account, Liberal Senator James Paterson accused the Chinese of “banning” the Prime Minister for political reasons.
“The Chinese Communist Party is seeking to interfere in our democracy and silence our free speech – again,” he said.
“This time they’ve banned the Prime Minister from WeChat to try to stop him communicating with Chinese Australians – but they’ve left the Leader of the Opposition free to attack the government.
“Given the partisan implications of this censorship in an election year and that WeChat is the primary electronic means the Chinese Communist Party uses to monitor and control Chinese diaspora around the world, I am calling on all Australian politicians to voluntarily boycott WeChat.
“We cannot allow a foreign authoritarian government to interfere in our democracy and set the terms of public debate in Australia. Anthony Albanese should lead by example by refusing to use WeChat and show he won’t tolerate foreign interference in Australian politics.”
Originally published as China hits back over Scott Morrison’s claim his WeChat was hijacked
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