Outrage over tweet shows some countries need to get priorities right: China Daily editorial

Don't wash your dirty linen in public. And don't let others do it for you.

That seems to have been the prime concern of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in demanding China apologize for one of its foreign ministry spokesmen posting on his personal Twitter account a stylized visual representing the Australian soldiers' alleged atrocities against Afghan prisoners and civilians, for which an official investigation found there is credible evidence.

But what if cleansing the "dirtiness" is of value to the world? The photo used in the tweet, which is clearly a representation of the war crimes personnel of the Special Operations Task Group are accused of, rather than a documentary record, shows a grinning Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to a child's throat. An act that is documented in the findings of the official inquiry into allegations of misconduct, which concluded, "The answer to the question 'is there substance to rumors of war crimes by elements of the Special Operations Task Group' must sadly be 'yes, there is'."

Although Morrison's bid to divert attention from the real issue has received the backing of the United States, New Zealand and France, which have opted to criticize the illustration and the "manner" of "Chinese diplomacy", it is the heinous crimes that have been laid at the door of Australia's elite special forces, which are rightfully the focus of other countries, including Afghanistan.

It is Australia, with the backing of the United States, France and New Zealand, that has taken the initiative to transform a personal tweet into a diplomatic dispute by pointing the finger at China, while turning a blind eye to the horrific acts that are the subject of the tweet.

China's embassy in France, responding to the French criticism of the tweet, said that the reaction to the incident is not about taking sides with Australia or China, but about siding with war criminals or international justice and human conscience.

For too long, the Western countries have been lecturing the rest of the world on human rights issues and proclaiming they uphold universal values, largely thanks to their monopoly of the microphone. Some of them just cannot get used to the fact that their hypocrisy can be exposed by their own acts. Even when their wrongdoing does see the light, it is always dismissed as an aberration and negligible. But they are less forgiving of other countries' errors. These are always "endemic, institutional and systemic".

That Morrison backed down on Tuesday in saying that his administration is making efforts to maintain working relations with China and hopes the incident will not snowball, lays bare the fact that criticizing non-Western countries is a knee-jerk reaction for Western leaders whenever they feel the heat of other countries' condemnation.

It is notable that while blaming China, the US, New Zealand and France have not expressed any sympathy to the Afghan people, who are the true victims of the atrocities.

War is the grave of truth. The tweet was hard earth to the gravediggers.