Credit:Matt Golding
“I have had a preliminary conversation with the Defence Minister,and have sought a more comprehensive briefing.“
John Blaxland,professor of international security and intelligence studies at the Australian National University,said it was right for the Defence Minister to call out the presence of the Chinese ship but noted Australia “acts in a similar manner”.
Unless the vessel was doing something that hasn’t been publicly disclosed,Blaxland said “to my mind it is actually quite passive”,rather than aggressive.
“It’s what nations do – they operate outside the 12 nautical miles[of another country’s coast],they monitor what they can,and they gather information that might be useful in the future about electronic profile and things like that,” he said.
“And the facilities at Harold. E Holt are acutely aware of what’s at stake and what’s at play and are postured with this in mind.
“But having said that,it’s still appropriate that it gets called out. Because the Australian people need to appreciate that it is happening and happening on an industrial scale.”
Route of Chinese spy ship off the WA coast.Credit:Defence
Michael Shoebridge,director of the defence program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute,said the presence of the ship shows China is very interested in understanding Australian and allied military capabilities like communications and submarine operations.
“And they’re devoting intelligence resources to do that,” he said.
“It also shows the PLA is now routinely operating closer to Australia than in past decades.
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“Public discussion of this – the increasingly close military activity – is valuable because it’s a reality that our security has to deal with. So routine public reporting of PLA presence serves a useful purpose in a democracy.”
But Shoebridge said the announcement in the middle of an election campaign “clearly also serves a political purpose”.
In a statement,Defence said it was aware of the vessel operating “off the north-west shelf of Australia”.
“Defence is actively monitoring the current activities of the Chinese Intelligence Collection Vessel off the north-west coast of Western Australia with a combination of air and maritime capabilities,” he said.
“Australia respects the right of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace,just as we expect others to respect our right to do the same.
“Defence will continue to monitor the ship’s operation in our maritime approaches.”
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