Fears Chinese warship sent to spy

Australia’s defence force are paying close attention to a Chinese warship heading into our waters, amid fears it’s been sent to spy.

The defence force is keeping a close eye on a Chinese warship heading into Australian waters amid fears it will spy on war games with the US.

The spy ship, officially known as an Auxiliary General Intelligence vessel, is expected to closely monitor the US and Australian exercises during the Talisman Sabre war games off the Queensland coast in the coming weeks.

Decked out with advanced communications systems designed to listen in on enemy forces, the ship was reportedly north of Papua New Guinea on Saturday night.

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The Australian-US training exercises take place every two years and involve the “planning and conduct of mid-intensity ‘high end’ warfighting”, according to the Defence Force website.

“There is (an AGI ship) north of Australia at the moment,” Chief of Defence Joint Operations, Lieutenant General Greg Bilton told the Talisman Sabre launch in Brisbane, the ABC reported.

“It is international waters, they have the right to sail there. I’m not going to go into operational details, but we’ll just take appropriate actions in regards to that vessel. It’s a vessel that collects information, so it’s not a great threat, but we’ll take appropriate action.”

The Defence Department said in a statement it was “aware that there will likely be interest from other countries in exercise Talisman Sabre”.

“These issues are taken into account during the planning and conduct of exercises. Any questions relating to the movement of (Chinese military) vessels in international waters should be directed to the Chinese government.”

The presence of China warships spying in Australian waters was becoming increasingly regular, Ashley Townshend, director of the Sydney University-based United States Studies Centre, said.

“As China’s navy grows more powerful and picks up the pace of operations far away from the mainland, its warships are becoming an everyday sight right across the region,” he told News Corp.

Mr Townshend said despite the Chinese ship not breaking any international laws, it did present double standards.

“All nations have the right … to conduct military surveillance operations in international waters outside a state’s 12 nautical mile territorial sea. While the US and Australia — along with most other nations — accept this principle and grant it to China, Beijing does not extend this right to other nations in the South China Sea, where it routinely chases away foreign vessels.”