Deputy PM refuses to say if Chinese warships targeted Australian cities

The country’s defence minister has held back on a key question about what Chinese warships were doing when they circumnavigated Australia this year.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has refused to say if Chinese warships were “targeting our cities” when they carried out exercises off Australia’s vast coast earlier this year.

The Australian Defence Force revealed in February it was tracking two People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) frigates and a replenishment vessel in the Coral Sea, off Queensland.

They passed within 150 nautical miles (278km) east of Sydney as they moved south and conducted live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea without notifying Canberra or air traffic controllers.

The Albanese government has kept tight-lipped on what the Chinese flotilla’s mission was, even amid fears AUKUS could be on the rocks, Australia trailing its allies in defence spending and warnings Beijing poses an “imminent” threat to the region.

Three Chinese warships carried out live drills off Australia’s east coast. Picture: Australian Defence Force

Mr Marles, who is also defence minister, on Monday told News Corp’s Defending Australia Summit the Chinese live-fire drills was “very much not diplomacy or defensive diplomacy”.

“None of that provides strategic reassurance,” he said.

Asked point blank if they were rehearsing strikes on Australian cities or onshore facilities, Mr Marles said he did know but would not confirm or deny.

“Look, I do know the answer to the question,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate or helpful for me in this situation to speculate about it for a range of reasons … and the most significant being what we did with the Chinese task group was to engage in an unprecedented level of surveillance on that task group.

“So we do know exactly what they were doing and exactly what they’re rehearsing.

“For me to start talking about that obviously reveals our surveillance capabilities, which is why I’m reluctant to.”

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says he knows whether Chinese warships were targeting Australian cities when they carried out exercises earlier this year. Picture: Martin Ollman

Mr Marles added the Chinese ships were “very clear about what they were doing”.

“Perhaps I would say that I think I don’t think there are any capabilities that were put on display there which are particular surprise,” he said.

“And we were also, as I say – being able to surveil that task group in the manner which we did also sends an important statement.”

‘Great power contest’

The Trump administration has been calling on Canberra to dramatically boost military spending amid concerns China could make a move on the democratically self-governed island of Taiwan by 2027.

Aside from torching the decades-long status quo, a Chinese move on Taiwan would deal a major blow to the global supply of semiconductors – crucial components in modern tech – and massively disrupt vital trade routes.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this month told Mr Marles that Australia’s defence budget “should” be 3.5 per cent of GDP “as soon as possible” during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth (left) has told Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles that Australia ‘should’ spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence. Picture: Deputy Prime Minister’s Office

In a read out, the US Embassy said the two senior officials “discussed aligning investment to the security environment in the Indo-Pacific, accelerating US force posture initiatives in Australia, advancing defence industrial base co-operation, and creating supply chain resilience”.

Mr Hegseth also used his address at the conference to warn that Beijing posed an “imminent” threat to the Indo-Pacific.

“Let me be clear, any attempt by Communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the world,” Mr Hegseth said.

“There’s no reason to sugar-coat it. The threat China poses is real and it could be imminent.

“We hope not but certainly could be.”

While the Albanese government has pushed back on boosting the ADF’s budget, Mr Marles acknowledged at the Defending Australia Summit that China’s military build-up was the “most significant … that we have seen since the end of the Second World War”.

China has built the world’s largest combat-ready military under President Xi Jinping. Picture: AFP / Vyacheslav Oseledko

“And it shapes the region in which we live, and it means that Australia’s geography today is more relevant to great power contest than it has been at any point since the end of the Second World War, arguably at any point in our history,” he said.

“In terms of our own defence capability needs, our risk is not so much the invasion of the continent.

“We are fortunate that we are an island nation surrounded by oceans, but on the other hand, we are deeply reliant on our sea lines of communication.

“The supply of the country – almost all of our liquid fuels are imported by sea but also through export revenues.”

Mr Marles said Australia getting cut off from the world was “our strategic risk”.

“It’s the disruption of those sea lines,” he said.

“It’s the coercion that could result because of the disruption of such sea routes.

“It is that, and the stability of the region in which we live.

“Because the defence of Australia is intimately connected with the peace and stability of the Pacific, the peace and stability of Southeast Asia, of Northeast Asia, of the Northeast Indian Ocean.”

Originally published as Deputy PM refuses to say if Chinese warships targeted Australian cities