![]() The Chinese have been critical of a new partnership involving Australia, Britain and the United States announced in September under which Australia will be provided with nuclear-powered submarines. Morrison has had a vexed relationship with China since he replaced Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister in 2018. "They don't care who wins as long as people don't trust democracy." Albanese told Brisbane Radio 4BC he would talk to Morrison about "any national security implications" of the prime minister's WeChat problem. "They really couldn't care less who wins the election," Smith said. ![]() Smith said he did not believe that Morrison's WeChat problem was evidence that China would back Albanese's center-left Labor Party at the next election. We realised WeChat was not just being used as a. I dare say we could safely say it was at least inspired by the China government," Smith added. A few months before Australia's 2019 federal election, we noticed the election had become a hot topic on WeChat. "I don't think we know who's behind this. "It's not the most difficult thing to hack an account within China," Smith told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Graeme Smith, a China expert at the Australian National University, said Morrison's account was registered to a Chinese national in China's Fujian province. "More likely than not it was state-sanctioned and it shows the attitude towards free speech and freedom of expression that comes out of Beijing," Sharma said. But ultimately social media are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Sharma said Morrison used WeChat to connect with Australia's Chinese diaspora. Liberal Party lawmaker and former diplomat Dave Sharma said the interference was likely sanctioned by the Chinese government. Fergus Ryan, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute Chinese social media expert, tweeted that Morrison was one of at least a dozen Australian politicians who use WeChat accounts now registered to a Chinese citizen. Paterson said it was concerning that 1.2 million Chinese Australians who use the platform couldn't access news from the prime minister, but could still see criticisms of the government made by opposition leader Anthony Albanese. "What the Chinese government has done by shutting down an Australian account is foreign interference of Australian democracy in an election year," Paterson said.
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