From China to Parliament House, it feels like everyone has been getting into the ‘politics and diplomacy by Twitter’ act

Donald Trump was the first politician — and (literally) the past master — at using Twitter to send out messages, not just to his local constituents, but on a global scale.

It’s not working quite so well for him these days, of course. Scan through his tweets and the warnings in blue, inserted by Twitter, that his claims about electoral fraud are disputed litter the feed. Not that it is stopping him, of course. He tweets on regardless.

And it feels like everyone has been getting into the politics and diplomacy by Twitter act of late.

Most conspicuously perhaps this week was Zhao Lijian, featuring an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child.

It was a confected picture, but one playing to the complete…