Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, on Sunday, demanded the Chinese government take down an image from Twitter that shows the Australian army in a poor light. The image, posted on Twitter from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s verified Twitter account, shows an Australian soldier gesticulating to slit a child’s throat.

“Shocked by the murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers,” the image was captioned. According to a CNN report, this spat comes in the background of rising tensions between the two countries. On the other hand, China is still Australia’s biggest trading partner.

Morrison, during a press conference, demanded an apology from the Chinese officials, saying: “It is utterly outrageous and it cannot be justified on any basis whatsoever.” The Australian PM has also contacted Twitter to take down the photograph, per a CNN report.

“It is a false image and a terrible slur on our great defense forces and the men and women who served in that uniform for over 100 years,” CNN quoted Morrison as saying.

This post comes in the wake of an official report that alleges that elite Australian forces killed 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners unlawfully in an environment where “blood lust” and “competition killings” were allegedly a norm. After the report was released, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) asked for a federal investigation into 36 alleged war crimes. The ADF also shut the claims of the killing of afghan civilians.

Replying to Morrison’s claim, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said: “The Australian side reacted so strongly to my colleague’s personal tweet, does it mean to show that it is reasonable for some Australian soldiers to coldly kill the innocent people in Afghanistan and it is not unreasonable for anyone to condemn this cold crime?” she said.