China’s dangerous near miss

If not for evasive action by a Seahawk helicopter crew after a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares in its pathway on Saturday night, the near miss could have claimed Australian lives. The chopper was on patrol in international waters, helping enforce UN sanctions against North Korea. China could have been sending Australia a message, as US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink appears to suggest. The incident occurred a day after Defence Minister Richard Marles committed Australia to joining the US and Japan in naval operations to deter increasingly aggressive Chinese incursions in the South China Sea, where China damaged two Philippine vessels last week. Mr Kritenbrink sounded a sobering warning – that China’s increasing aggression in international waters could cost lives “or worse”. The Seahawk and HMAS Hobart, from which it was operating, as foreign affairs and defence correspondent Ben Packham reports, were well outside China’s contiguous zone, where Beijing can legally prevent intrusions.

Anthony Albanese will raise the “unprofessional and unacceptable” conduct of the fighter with Premier Li Qiang, his Chinese counterpart, during Mr Li’s visit to Australia next month. He is right to do so but there is no reason to wait. The Prime Minister, as Peter Dutton says, should phone Chinese President Xi Jinping to express Australia’s deep concern about the dangerous near miss. The government also should call in Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian. This is not the first incidence of aggression. Just four months ago, Mr Xiao ludicrously tried to blame Japan for an incident last November when naval divers from HMAS Toowoomba were injured when a People’s Liberation Army-Navy destroyer activated its sonar, forcing the divers to exit the water. Denying China’s involvement, Mr Xiao ­tried to cosy up to the Albanese government, announcing Beijing’s desire to get “something more” out of its now-stabilised relationship with Australia. Beijing, he said, wanted to “move beyond stabilisation, move beyond improvement, and move towards further development of our bilateral relationship”, such as joint military exercises. In a chilling aside, he said the divers would have been killed had China’s sonar technology been deployed.

In another dangerous incident in May 2022, flares and “chaff” were fired close to an RAAF P-8A Poseidon surveillance plane by a Chinese fighter jet in contested South China Sea international airspace.

The latest incident, as foreign editor Greg Sheridan writes, shows China holds the Albanese government in contempt: “All the happy talk from the Prime Minister and his senior ministerial colleagues about a newly stabilised relationship with China is shown to be worth absolutely nothing.”