China blocked the Australian Prime ministers message and response on there ap WeChat. They stated that what he said was misleading to the public so they took his post down. WeChat is like twitter but run by the Chinese government so they get to dictate what they think the terms and services are. The situation the prime minister was trying to explain was a photoshopped imagine of an Australian commando with a bloody knife to the throat of an Afganistanie child. When The prime minister’s response to the image was taken down the Australian government was in outrage over the image and not giving their government any chance to defend themselves. This feud is growing in tension and China just passed a new statement saying that there tariff on Australian wine is going up by 200%. This would completely eliminates Australia’s wine exports.
China is doing some shady stuff. It seems like they are trying to start something or make something happen. Kinda like teasing someone until they start a conflict so you don’t look like the bad person when it does happen. When you call someone out especially in the gruesome way they did. You should allow the people a chance to speak for themselves and plead their case. so even if it is true to completely blocking anyone opposing your point of view is not the right way to do things. This is very important because it can lead to very serious things to happen. Most extreme would be war but less extreme but more along reality would be some type of economical shut off from china to push their agenda to make Australia do what China wants. China historically has never been militarily strong, but in more recent years they have been very dedicated and economically sound so often they don’t use brute force with foreign problems.
This relates to class by trying to figure out why china is doing this using the two theories we learned in class. Realistic theory states that China is doing this to preserve it own nation. They are doing it for their own interests and they are bullying their way economically to get what they want.