Anthony Albanese riled by questions on China envoy’s op-ed

Anthony Albanese has shot back zesty responses to questions about comments made by China’s ambassador.

Anthony Albanese says his government will pump as much cash as is needed into Australia’s defence after China’s ambassador wrote an op-ed urging Canberra to restrain from spending more.

In his piece published on Monday, Xiao Qian said China and Australia were “not foes” despite being embroiled in a regional rivalry and Beijing rapidly building up conventional and nuclear military capabilities.

It came as the Prime Minister faces domestic and international calls to boost the defence budget, with the US warning of a potentially “imminent” threat from China in the Indo Pacific.

But Mr Albanese has resisted, making Australia an outlier in the West – a position highlighted by NATO’s decision last week to dramatically hike military spending to 5 per cent of GDP.

Fronting media on Monday, Mr Albanese did not align with Xi Jinping’s envoy either.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will pump as much cash as is needed into Australia’s defence. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

“The Chinese ambassador speaks for China,” Mr Albanese told reporters.

“My job is to speak for Australia.

“And it’s in Australia’s national interest for us to invest in our capability and to invest in our relationships, and we’re doing just that.”

Asked by a reporter for The Australian if Mr Xiao’s comments constituted “meddling”, a visibly riled Mr Albanese said: “I don’t know, your newspaper published the op-ed.”

He added that people were free to “make comments”.

“That’s up to them,” Mr Albanese said.

“What my job is to do is speak for Australia, and that’s what I do.”

‘Not foes’

Mr Albanese and his senior minister have stuck firm to deciding what capability Australia needs and then funding it, rather than committing to a set percentage of GDP like most other countries and some previous Australian governments.

Mr Xiao used his op-ed in The Australian to urge Canberra to stay the course and continue resisting spending more on defence.

“Recently, some countries hyped up the so-called China threat narrative on occasions such as the Shangri-La Dialogue, G7 summit and NATO summit, proclaiming to significantly increase defence expenditures, and even incited Australia to follow suit,” he wrote.

“Such rhetoric and actions are steeped in Cold War mentality, blatantly creating division, fuelling a global arms race as well as threatening world peace and stability, which warrants our high vigilance.

“By playing up international and regional tensions and slandering China’s normal military build-up, these countries are merely seeking nothing but excuses to drastically grow their military spending, even arbitrarily reaching beyond its geographical scope and mandate.”

Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian says Australia and China are ‘not foes’. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

He accused “certain countries” of trying to contain China because they “fear fair competition” and “cannot tolerate other countries from making progress”.

Mr Xiao’s piece came as Foreign Minister Penny Wong heads to Washington for a second meeting with her Quad counterparts within six months.

The Quad, made up of Australia, India, Japan and the US, is a partnership broadly seen as a check on China’s economic and military might.

Earlier this month, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned China could invade the democratically self-governed island of Taiwan as early as 2027.

Such a move would deal a major blow to global supply of semiconductors – crucial components in modern tech – and massively disrupt vital trade routes.

“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 told the Shangri La Dialogue.

“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.”

Mr Xiao is urging the Albanese government to continue resisting domestic and international calls to boost Australia’s defence budget. Picture: Martin Ollman / NewsWire

Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on the sidelines of the conference, he directly asked Australia to boost the defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.

The Albanese government was quick to brush off the request, saying Australia would set its own military budget.

But days later, Mr Marles, who is also defence minister, admitted China’s growing nuclear arsenal was driving “security anxiety”.

“I mean, we’ve made no secret of the fact that we have a security anxiety in relation to China that’s principally driven by the very significant conventional military build-up that China is engaging in, and, for that matter, a nuclear build-up that China is engaging in,” he told reporters.

“We’ve made that clear to China itself.”

As of mid-2024, China’s operational nuclear warheads exceeded 600, according to the US Department of Defence.

That was nearly triple what the country was estimated to have in 2020.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles says China’s military build-up is driving ‘security anxiety’ in Australia. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

More recently, Mr Marles refused to say whether three Chinese warships that circumnavigated Australia earlier this year targeted cities when they carried out exercises off the country’s vast coastline.

Appearing at New Corp’s Defending Australia Summit, he said was asked point blank if the ships rehearsed strikes on Australian cities or onshore facilities.

“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.”

Originally published as Anthony Albanese riled by questions on China envoy’s op-ed