Scott Morrison's slip of the tongue during UN climate summit speech causes outrage in China
has caused widespread outrage in after a slip of the tongue during his address at the UN climate summit. The Prime Minister was speaking about Australia's approach and commitment to at the in Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday when he misspoke. During the address, Mr Morrison said there was a build in 'global momentum to tackle China,' before he quickly corrected himself and said 'climate change'. A video of the speech has spread across China, with Chinese state-media outlets and social media sites furious over the incident. The hashtag 'Australian Prime Minister Misrepresents Tackling Climate Change as Tackling China' has gone viral on Chinese online networking tool Weibo with over 130 million views. A user of the site didn't believe Mr Morrison's words were a mistake, but instead, he was expressing what was really in his head. Chinese state media publication Guancha.com took to social media and said that the Prime Minister's mistake showed that his mind is 'full of China'. A later opinion piece from the outlet targeted Mr Morrison over the speech and the nation's approach to climate change. 'He doesn't have a passion to protect the environment but does have anti-China passion under the name of protecting [the] environment,' it said. 'This episode is the actual reflection of his mind.' The state-run media outlet's post online has been shared by nearly 2,000 users and has been liked over 10,000 times. The outrage aimed at Mr Morrison adds to the rising tensions between China and Australia. In September, Scott Morrison doubled down on calls for an independent review into the origins of Covid-19 despite China inflicting months of economic pain on Australia. In a pre-recorded address to the United Nations General Assembly, he said preventing future pandemics remained a priority and pushed for 'accelerated efforts' to identify how Covid-19 first emerged. 'Australia called for an independent review, and sees understanding the cause of this pandemic not as a political issue, but as being essential, simply, to prevent the next one,' Mr Morrison said. 'We need to know so we can prevent this death and this calamity being visited upon the world again. 'That can be our only motivation.' In what appeared to be a reaction to April 2020's original call for an independent review, China has targeted Australia's agricultural and resources sector, with measures affecting export products including wine, seafood, barley and coal, treasurer Josh Frydenberg said earlier in September. Those trade actions have seen total exports to China fall by around $5.4 billion over the year to the June quarter, Mr Frydenberg said, although most of these goods were successfully redirected elsewhere. Mr Morrison's recent decision to develop nuclear-powered submarines as part of a new security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom caused a lot of drawback from China. The deal resulted in Australia tearing up a $90 billion contract with France for diesel submarines, and will instead see the US and the UK share sensitive technology to allow the development of Australia's first nuclear-powered submarines. The Chinese government said the 'extremely irresponsible' deal would seriously undermine regional peace and stability, while the nationalistic Global Times tabloid carried an editorial warning Australia not to act provocatively or China would 'certainly punish it with no mercy'. While in August, Scott Morrison took a swipe at China while addressing a damning UN report on climate change. The Prime Minister said climate solutions are most needed in developing countries such as China, India and Vietnam where emissions are rising. China accounts for roughly 30 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, pumping out twice the amount of the US which makes up about 15 per cent. 'We cannot ignore the fact that the developing world accounts for two thirds of global emissions and those emissions are rising,' Mr Morrison said. 'That is a stark fact. It is also a clear fact that China's emissions account for more than the OECD combined.'