Wolf warrior artist turns new chapter in Chinese propaganda

A young, bespectacled computer graphic artist unknown outside China has found instant notoriety overseas after a computer-generated image of his sparked a row between Beijing and Canberra.

The widely circulated, digitally manipulated image of an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child was tweeted by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday, drawing the fury of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The number of social media followers of the artist, who calls himself Wuheqilin, has since risen to 1 million, with some hailing the image as a new chapter in Chinese propaganda artwork.

The paintbrush of Wuheqilin is more effective than an army, said a user on China s

” ’ Twitter-like microblog Weibo.

Wuheqilin also proclaims himself as a wolf warrior

“” artist, after two popular Chinese movies in which the action hero prevails over evil US mercenaries. The phrase wolf warriors

“is also used by international media to characterise China s sometimes combative diplomacy.

Wuheqilin has long supported Chinese propaganda artwork, but it was only last summer when he infused political themes into his images as Hong Kong was rocked by street protests, according to interviews with Chinese media. There re too many cases ’ where comics are used to smear China from the Hong Kong — protests last year to the COVID19 epidemic at the start of the year and to Western countries passing the buck to China and asking for compensation (over COVID-19), I ve seen countless ’ examples, Wuheqilin told ” Guancha.cn, a nationalistic media outlet, in June.

One of the responsibilities of artwork and artists is to promote and export ideology ... Especially during this special period when the West is using their say to press hard on China.” His first politically-charged image A Pretender God (2019) depicts a group of Hong Kong protesters worshipping the Statue of Liberty. Instead of a torch and a tablet, she holds a petrol bomb and a keyboard.

On social media, Wuheqilin said he was thrilled foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted his work.

Director Zhao, so powerful! Let s kick some ass! Disarm them for me!!!” Wuheqilin wrote on Weibo.

Late on Tuesday, Wuheqilin posted another image, titled To Morrison, which shows Morrison holding what could be a flag over dead bodies and pointing at a child standing before a bloody canvas, while a gaggle of photographers turn their cameras towards the young artist.