Chinese spy ship arrives off Queensland coast to monitor war games

A Chinese spy ship, sent to monitor war games between the Australian and US militaries, has now positioned itself off the Queensland coast.

A warship sent by China to spy on Australia’s military games with the US has now arrived off the coast of Queensland where the exercises are taking place.

Last week the Australian Defence Force (ADF) began tracking the Auxiliary General Intelligence vessel as it made its way towards Australia ahead of the Talisman Sabre war games.

The ADF said it was expecting the ship, which is fitted with advanced communications systems designed to listen in on enemy militaries, to position itself off Queensland outside of territorial waters.

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“We’re tracking it. We don’t know yet its destination, but we are assuming that it will come down to the east coast of Queensland, and we will take appropriate measures,” ADF chief of joint operations Lieutenant General Greg Bilton said earlier in the week.

A Chinese Type 815G Dongdiao-class electronic surveillance ship is believed to be positioned in waters off the Queensland coast during Talisman Sabre war games.

This prediction was correct, and the vessel has now reached the “exclusive economic zone” in the Coral Sea, sources have told the ABC.

Experts believe it will remain there throughout the war games to gather intelligence about the type of weapons and technology being used by the Australian and US forces.

The Defence Department previously told news.com.au it was aware there would likely be interest from other countries in the Talisman Sabre exercise, and this was taken into account during the planning phase.

This means the Australian ships would also likely be fitted with technology to mask their electronic emissions.

They may even see it as an opportunity to feed misinformation to the Chinese navy, according to Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings.

Locals look at the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, docked at the Port of Brisbane.

“There will be some technology that (the Australian military) deliberately won’t use in the exercises so the Chinese don’t see it,” Mr Jennings told news.com.au.

“They may also take the opportunity to see if they can fool the Chinese with deliberate misinformation and complicate their intelligence-gathering efforts.”

The war games is a bilateral training activity that takes place every two years and involves the “planning and conduct of mid-intensity ‘high end’ warfighting”, according to the Defence Force website.

The games kicked off today off the coast of Shoalwater Bay with more than 34,000 military personnel involved.

A high-mobility artillery rocket system test-fired during a Talisman Sabre drill. Picture: Ashley Maldonado/U.S. Air Force

This isn’t the first time the Chinese military has sent a ship decked out with advanced communication systems to monitor the war games.

The same class of vessel was sent on a very similar intelligence-gathering excursion when the games were held in 2017.

Mr Jennings said it was becoming increasingly normal for Chinese ships to spy on these types of exercises.

“They are interested in gathering technical intelligence on how our weapons and technology functions,” Mr Jennings said.