Chinese paper’s threat to RAAF: ‘It would be a shame if one day a plane fell from the sky’

A CHINESE newspaper has reacted to Australian military action in the controversial South China Sea with a startling warning.

FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2014 file photo taken by surveillance planes and released May 15 by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, a Chinese vessel, top center, is used to expand structures and land on the Johnson Reef, called Mabini by the Philippines and Chigua by China, at the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, Philippines. The Philippines wants an international tribunal to issue a decision as quickly as it can on a Manila complaint that questions the legality of China's massive territorial claims in the South China Sea because the disputes continue to escalate. Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said late Tuesday, June 17 that the Philippines would ask its lawyers to petition the Arbitral Tribunal in the Hague, the Netherlands, to issue an earlier ruling after China said it would not get involved in the case, which should shorten the arbitration proceedings. (AP Photo/Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, File)

A CHINESE newspaper has reacted angrily to Australian military surveillance plane flying near disputed areas of the South China Sea, appearing to warn Australia one of its planes could be shot out of the sky.

State-owned publication The Global Times published an inflammatory editorial following revelations an Australian Royal Australian Air Force patrol plane had entered airspace around the contentious area.

In a scratchy radio recording broadcast by the BBC, an RAAF pilot is heard speaking to Chinese navy.

“China navy, China navy,” the voice said.

“We are an Australian aircraft exercising international freedom of navigation rights in international airspace in accordance with the international civil aviation convention and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — over.”

The BBC said it recorded the audio from a RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft on November 25. It said the message was repeated several times but no response was heard from the Chinese.

The Global Times responded to the broadcast appearing to threaten the Australian military if it continued to act on “freedom of navigation” saying “Australia should not count on being welcomed or accepted” in the air space around disputed territories.

“The Chinese people cannot understand why the Australian military would get involved, and to be honest, they have less patience to prevent a flare up,” the translated editorial read, according to the ABC.

“Australian military planes better not regularly come to the South China Sea to ‘get involved’, and especially don’t test China’s patience by flying too close to China’s islands.

“Everyone has always been careful, but it would be a shame if one day a plane fell from the sky and it happened to be Australian.”

In October, the US guided missile destroyer Lassen sailed close to one of China’s man-made islands, drawing an angry rebuke from China and a shadowing patrol.

Tensions in the region have mounted since China transformed reefs in the South China Sea into small islands capable of supporting military facilities, a move the United States says threatens free passage in an area through which one-third of the world’s oil passes.

In October, Washington infuriated Beijing when the USS Lassen guided missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of at least one land formation claimed by China in the disputed Spratly Islands chain.

Speaking with the ABC, Defence Minister Marise Payne questioned why the recording was broadcast, and said the flight was part of ongoing flyovers carried out since 1980 under Operation Gateway.

“I don’t think the Chinese ae at all surprised to know that Australia supports freedom of navigation, freedom of flight in accordance with the international law of the sea,” she said.

Defence Minister Marise Payne has played down the flight. Picture: Britta Campion/The Australian

The Department of Defence has confirmed the flight, recorded last month, took place between November 24 and December 4.

“A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion was conducting a routine maritime patrol in the region as part of Operation Gateway from November 25 to December 4,” a defence department spokesman said.

“Under Operation Gateway, the Australian Defence Force conducts routine maritime surveillance patrols in the North Indian Ocean and South China Sea as a part of Australia’s enduring contribution to the preservation of regional security and stability in Southeast Asia.”

- with AFP