‘We’ve been exposed’: China’s ‘act of intimidation’ – and why Australia can’t complain

When three Chinese warships sailed within 150 nautical miles of Sydney, last week, it was enough to make global headlines.

And then, on Wednesday, our defence force chief admitted that the Australian military didn’t even know that these ships were conducting a live-firing exercise there until 40 minutes after it had begun.

What’s this all about? What are the rules with foreign military in our waters? And why does it matter?

Peter Hartcher, our mastheads’ international and political editor, speaks to Samantha Selinger-Morris, host of The Morning Edition podcast, about what it means that China is stepping up aggression towards us as Donald Trump treats allies like a mob boss running a protection racket.

Listen to the conversation by clicking the player above, or read on for an edited extract of the episode.

Samantha Selinger-Morris: Peter, just yesterday, after your column was published, news broke that those three Chinese warships were tracked operating east of Hobart, and the head of the ADF has just said that this move suggests they may proceed through the Australian bight. So how alarming is that?

Peter Hartcher: In itself, it’s an entirely legal manoeuvre for any country’s navy to sail in the high seas, and even to enter that country’s exclusive economic zone, which the Chinese task group has done again yesterday. We’re told it’s 250 kilometres off the coast of Tasmania, which is within our 300-kilometre exclusive economic zone.

But it’s the first time that the Chinese Communist Party has sent its naval assets so far south down the Australian coast. It’s the first time they’ve conducted live fire exercises off the Australian coast.

It’s a political act of intimidation within the rules-based order, which we always claim to defend and protect. So we can’t complain, and we haven’t, really, but it is, it is a pointed outreach.

And then on top of that we have just learned that the ADF actually didn’t even know that these live-firing exercises were taking place in the Tasman Sea until some 40 minutes after they began. I mean, that’s not good, right?

It’s looking like a pretty embarrassing performance. The good news is that the Australian Defence Forces were tracking the ships from the moment they entered Australian, well, near approaches in the north, in the Coral Sea and south, but the fact that they were firing missiles into a busy flight corridor that connects Sydney with New Zealand and a busy approach, without the ADF knowing; this is embarrassing, and it looks incompetent and that they had to wait for a notification from a commercial pilot, a Virgin Airlines pilot, to find out.

So this is the point. This is the point we have been exposed as vulnerable, and it’s partly because of our own failure.

So what would it take for our country to move away from what you’ve called quote “Pollyanna Australia”? Does it require a broad cultural shift in our mindset?

It does. Our traditional enemy is complacency, and it’s a moment where we need to abandon that. Perhaps we’re just in a moment of shock absorption, where we’re taking in all the changes that are occurring.

[Because] while we are confronting a hostile China, we are also confronting an unreliable America.

Trump has said openly that he wants to get a big deal on disarmament with China and Russia. Okay, that’s a terrific goal. It’s a noble goal, and we all want that. He’s talked about the US halving its defence budget, if he could get the others to agree. And to be serious in pursuit of that, that could, that could be a breakthrough moment. And that’s one of the only remaining advantages that the US has over China – is its military. And the other point about that is, if he’s looking to cut a big deal with China, at what cost? And over the heads of which allies? The allies that he’s treating like dirt in Europe, the Ukrainian ally that he’s shaking down like a protection racket.

What would he do to protect Australia’s interests? Presumably, not very much, if he’s looking for a big deal. So all of this, all of this, are the new risks that we have to confront. We need leaders who are prepared to prosecute the actual agendas, as well as declare publicly to the country what the problem is.