By Matthew Knott and Lisa Visentin
China has accused Australia of intruding into its airspace after one of its fighter jets dropped flares close to a military patrol plane in a close encounter over the South China Sea that Australian authorities condemned as dangerous.
Earlier on Thursday, the Australian Defence Force sounded the alarm about Chinese warships operating close to Australia. At the same time, it revealed a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft was involved in “an unsafe and unprofessional interaction” with a PLA-AF aircraft on Tuesday while conducting a routine maritime surveillance patrol in the South China Sea.
“The PLA-AF aircraft released flares in close proximity to the RAAF P-8A aircraft,” the ADF said in a statement.
China responded with allegations that the RAAF jet had “deliberate intruded into China’s Xisha Islands airspace” and jeopardised its national security.
“The expulsion measures taken by the Chinese side are legitimate, professional and restrained, and China has lodged solemn representations with the Australian side,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a press conference on Thursday.
The Xisha, or Paracel Islands, is a hotly disputed archipelago in the South China Sea with competing territorial claims made by China, Vietnam and Taiwan, although China has exerted control over the islands since 1974.
People’s Liberation Army-Navy Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang.Credit: Department of Defence
The flares incident echoes a similar event last May, when a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares dangerously close to an Australian helicopter operating on a United Nations mission in international waters in the Yellow Sea.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government had registered complaints about the incident with Chinese officials in Canberra and Beijing.
He said there was “no way” the Chinese fighter aircraft could have ensured that the flares did not hit the Australian plane given the aircraft were just 30 metres apart.
“Now, as it turned out, they didn’t, but had any of those flares hit the P-8, that would have definitely had the potential for significant damage to that aircraft,” Marles told Sky News.
“And so as a result, that is an action that we’ve declared as being unsafe.”
No injuries were sustained by Australian military personnel, and no damage was caused to the aircraft.
Marles said the government was also “responding in a serious way” to the presence of the ships, even though China had acted “perfectly in accordance with international law”. He said did not believe there was a direct connection between the flares incident and the presence of the Chinese ships off the Australian coast.
“I’ve ordered a deployment of both navy and air force assets to make sure that we are shadowing this to have a clear understanding of what’s going on,” Marles said.
The ADF said on Thursday that three Chinese People’s Liberation Army vessels – a Jiangkai-class frigate, a cruiser and a replenishment vessel – have been observed operating near north-east Australia in recent days after passing through the Torres Strait.
While the ships have not breached international law, the ADF was concerned enough to issue a rare statement about the Chinese naval presence in the Coral Sea, within Australia’s exclusive economic zone.
The Chinese vessels travelled through South-East Asia before entering Australia’s maritime approaches.
“Australia respects the rights of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, just as we expect others to respect Australia’s right to do the same,” the ADF said in a statement:
“Defence will continue to monitor the activities of the [Chinese] task group in Australia’s maritime approaches with a combination of capabilities, including air and maritime assets.”
A Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet, similar to the one that shot a flare Credit: AP
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the incident with the RAAF P-8 Poseidon aircraft was “deeply troubling”.
“These actions are not only dangerous and reckless, but they put the lives of our Australian Defence Force personnel – who were thankfully not injured during this incident – at risk,” he said.
Hastie questioned why Marles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had taken two days to release details of the incident, saying: “They continue to fail to show strength and stand up to their Chinese counterparts to condemn such actions.”
Jennifer Parker, an expert associate at the Australian National University’s National Security College, said: “I assume this is Defence trying to communicate with the Australian public that Chinese military behaviour in the region is changing.
“It is not common for the Chinese military to be operating in the Coral Sea, but it is becoming more expeditionary and is operating further from China’s shores.”
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.