China accuses Australia of ‘hyping up’ live-fire drills in Tasman Sea
China’s defence ministry has accused Australia of making “hyped up” and “unreasonable accusations” over its recent live-fire naval drills in international waters between Australia and New Zealand.
The verbal crossfire comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Saturday that China had not provided sufficient notice for a live-fire exercise conducted by the Chinese navy the previous day, which forced a number of commercial flights across the Tasman to divert course.
A Chinese warship conducted a second exercise on Saturday, with an Australian defence spokesperson confirming that a Chinese vessel had advised via radio of live firing activity.
People’s Liberation Army-Navy Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang was spotted 150 nautical miles off the coast of Sydney.Credit: ADF
Responding to the complaints, Chinese defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian on Sunday disputed Australia’s version of events as “completely inconsistent with the facts”, and said that China had repeatedly issued safety notices in advance of the drills being conducted.
“China’s actions are in full compliance with international law and international practices and will not affect aviation flight safety,” Wu said in a statement.
“Australia, knowing this well, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up. We are deeply surprised and strongly dissatisfied with this.”
Marles’ office has been contacted for comment.
A number of defence experts have described the drills as provocative and intimidatory and a sign that Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks to expand the rising superpower’s military reach and is intent on having a security presence near Australia.
Speaking before reports of the second drill emerged on Saturday, Albanese acknowledged that the first exercise, conducted 640 kilometres east of Eden on the NSW South Coast, complied with international law but said Australia had raised concerns about the lack of notice given before it was conducted.
“Notification did occur of this event, what we have done is to make representation, saying that we think best practice would be to give more notice, and we’ve done that through diplomatic channels, as is appropriate,” Albanese said.
He said Foreign Minister Penny Wong had spoken to her Chinese counterpart about the matter.
Marles said Australia would typically give 12 to 24 hours’ notice of its military exercises.
“I don’t think we have a satisfactory answer from China in relation to this,” Marles told ABC television on Saturday.
“They definitely did notify an event yesterday and they did so with very little notice, and that was the issue that was very disconcerting for the airlines involved.”
It is unclear whether Australia had similar complaints about the second live-fire drill.
This masthead reported on Friday that Qantas said both it and budget offshoot Jetstar temporarily adjusted some flights across the Tasman after receiving warnings of the drills, adding that it was working with the Australian government and broader industry to monitor the situation. Virgin and Emirates flights to New Zealand also received warnings about the exercises.
New Zealand said on Saturday that its navy frigates had observed a second day of live fire exercises by a Chinese warship, which had advised of the activity via radio.
“The safety of all people, aircraft and vessels in the area remains our paramount concern,” New Zealand Defence Minister Judith Collins’ office said.
“Our concerns regarding notification times and best practise when undertaking military exercises stand, and will be communicated appropriately.”
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie has accused Albanese of “weakness” in confronting China over the incident, which he described as “gunboat diplomacy to test US allies like Australia”.
Wong raised the issue of the Chinese ships with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yo two days ago in Johannesburg at a G20 meeting.
“I raised Australia’s expectations around safe and professional military conduct, consular cases, human rights and other issues of concern,” Wong posted on X. “I also sought an explanation for Chinese naval vessels conducting live fire drills without advance notification.
Wang told the Australian foreign minister that bilateral ties had stabilised but he hoped Australia would continue to “properly handle any differences and disagreements”, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry on Saturday.
There was no mention of China’s military conduct in the statement.
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