China has blasted Australia and the United States in an extraordinary statement about ‘Chinese police cars’ which have repeatedly been spotted in major cities Down Under.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying questioned the competency of Australian police and the intelligence of the US Ambassador to Australia, Arthur B Culvahouse Jr, during a scathing media briefing on Thursday.
The scathing message was a response to multiple sightings of cars across Australia with the Chinese police logo and the word police written on them in Mandarin.
Ms Chunying said she ‘could not help but laugh’ at claims the Communist Party apparatus was spying on Chinese expatriates Down Under.
‘I don’t know what you are thinking about when you read the report. I could not help but laugh.
‘See, Chinese people went across the seas and oceans’ to slap police vehicles with the words ‘Chinese police car’ in front of the doors,’ she said.
‘I don’t know whether or not Chinese police are too silly, or the Australian police are too incompetent, or the American ambassador to Australia is too stupid?’ she said.
‘I don’t think that even the lamest Hollywood screenwriter could come out with such a bad script.
US ambassador to Australia Arthur B. Culvahouse claimed Uygher people living in Australia are being monitored and harassed by foreign agents
‘If the U.S. ambassador wants to slander China, even if he has lost his mind, he should have used his own brain.
‘Otherwise, he could only end up a joke to be laughed at by the people of the world,’ she said.
It followed comments from the US Ambassador to Australia Arthur B Culvahouse Jr, that Uyghur people living Down Under are being monitored and harassed by foreign agents.
Mr Culvahouse told ABC News Breakfast this week: ‘What is happening, and it’s unacceptable, is that Uyghur who are lawfully in Australia, who are raised in Australia, working, paying taxes in Australia are being harassed by agents of a foreign power.
‘They’re being monitored. There’s police cars, fake police cars, that are with Chinese police logos parked outside their residences.
Alarm bells went off among a number of communities after sightings of what were thought to be Chinese police vehicles (pictured)
Police vehicles in China (stock picture) commonly have the same markings and colour scheme, right down to the stripes on the side
A Land Rover with Chinese police livery is cruising around the streets of Perth, scaring the local Chinese community
Hua told the US Ambassador to stop slandering China, threatening he would be held accountable if he kept talking about the matter.
Police have investigated the sightings of Chinese-branded ‘police car’ in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia after concerns from the public earlier this year.
At the time Chinese expats said they were afraid authorities from their home nation could be monitoring them, particularly with the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.
‘We are fearful of such Chinese authorities, as most Australians know about the protests in Hong Kong by now,’ expat Ho Yan Kwan said.
Police did find the owner of a car in Western Australia had simply bought stickers online to make their car look as if it was a Chinese vehicle.
It’s against the law to impersonate Australian police, but a loophole means there are no bans on preventing people decorating their cars with the logos of another country’s police force.
This was confirmed by an email between expat Ho Yan Kwan and a WA Police sergeant.
One Twitter user believes the Chinese police cars are real
People gathered in Perth for a rally calling for an end to violence in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR)
Pictured: Hong Kong protesters outside the University of Adelaide
‘Whilst I understand your concerns, the person is not committing any WA offences by having Chinese markings on their vehicle, therefore I cannot allocate for this inquiry,’ the sergeant allegedly wrote.
Others who spotted the cars were reluctant to believe they were fake.
Green MP Tammy Franks told the ABC that laws relating to the impersonation of foreign police cars in Australia need to be tightened.
She expressed her interest in introducing a private member’s bill to ‘ensure impersonating police forces is illegal in South Australia and send a clear and strong message that we stand for peaceful protest and democracy’.