A misspelled video of Australian Prime Minister Morrison attending the Global Climate Summit in Glasgow made it into the hot search list of Chinese social media Weibo.
Prime Minister Morrison erroneously stated in his speech on Tuesday that “the global response to China’s momentum”, but what he was meant to say was actually a response to “climate change.”
Up to now, #Australia Prime Minister mistakenly said addressing climate change as addressing China# has received 130 million page views on Weibo.
A Weibo post by the Chinese state media “Observer.com” satirized Prime Minister Morrison’s mistakes. The post read: “[他]China is all in my head.”
This Weibo post has been shared nearly 2,000 times and more than 10,000 users have liked it.
“This is a slip of the tongue, this is to say what is in my heart,” said a Weibo user.
In a subsequent commentary on Observer.com, the Chinese official media pointed the finger at the prime minister’s blundering remarks and Australia’s climate policy.
“He doesn’t have a heart for environmental protection, but he has a great anti-China heart in the name of environmental protection,” the comment said.
“This episode became a true portrayal of his inner thoughts.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) contacted the Prime Minister’s Office for comment, but was refused.
In his speech in Scotland, Prime Minister Morrison reiterated the Australian government’s commitment to zero emissions by 2050.
He also announced that the government will increase Australia’s climate finance investment by 500 million Australian dollars in neighboring countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, bringing the total to 2 billion Australian dollars.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin did not attend the Glasgow summit. These two countries, as well as Australia and India, strongly oppose the daunting plan to phase out coal after 2030.
Australia re-posts hot searches on Weibo
This is not the first time that Chinese netizens have caught the “painful foot” in Morrison’s words.
In 2020, Prime Minister Morrison once posted a composite picture in Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Australian soldiers put a knife against the throat of an Afghan child and demanded an apology from China.
The Australian Embassy in Beijing also expressed the same request for an apology as Morrison, with more than 20,000 messages, most of which support the Chinese government.
In May of this year, Prime Minister Morrison also made a slip of the tongue on another topic related to China. At that time, he mistakenly referred to China’s policy towards Taiwan as “one country, two systems” in a radio interview.
But “one country, two systems” is actually a policy that China implements towards Hong Kong, and it does not involve Taiwan.
Although the Chinese government proposed to implement this semi-autonomous policy on Taiwan, the proposal was rejected by the Taiwan government.
Although Beijing wants to adopt a “one country, two systems” policy towards Taiwan, Australia’s position concerning Taiwan is to be aware of Beijing’s “one China” policy.
Tensions between Australia and China have been going on for some time, and China has recently tried to take advantage of the Australian-Anglo-American alliance (AUKUS) issue under the diplomatic friction between Australia and France.
A commentary on China Global Television Network stated that Prime Minister Morrison’s reputation has developed to “unbelievable words” and “recklessly” pursuing short-term political goals.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that the unrest caused by the nuclear submarine agreement is not limited to France.
“What I want to emphasize is that the nuclear submarine cooperation of the Australia-UK-US alliance is not just a matter of diplomatic friction between several countries, but a serious matter that will create nuclear proliferation risks and undermine regional peace and stability.”
The Australian government has stated that it will not acquire nuclear weapons and has emphasized that submarines will not carry nuclear warheads.
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