Chinese ‘spy ship’ charting path for subs through Diamantina Trench, experts warn
Maritime security experts say the ‘most obvious’ explanation for the Chinese navy’s interest in the Diamantina Trench near WA would be to facilitate its submarine force.
A Chinese research ship that triggered spying concerns after passing through Bass Strait last month has been surveying the Diamantina Trench off southwest Australia since the weekend, sparking fresh warnings it may be harvesting information to aid the future deployment of submarines.
Maritime security analyst Raymond Powell, who has monitored the Tan Suo Yi Hao since it left New Zealand waters in late March, said the ship had paused twice since late Saturday, “first for 12 hours and then for 17 hours – probably to deploy its submersible into the trench”.
Mr Powell, who heads Stanford University’s Gordion Knot Centre for National Security Innovation, said the vessel paused for a third time early on Tuesday around 550 nautical miles from Perth as it passed over the Indian Ocean marine trench, which has a maximum depth of 7000m.
“My best guess is they’re deploying the submersible again,” he said, adding the most obvious explanation for the People’s Liberation Army Navy interest in the Diamantina Trench “would be to facilitate the deployment of its submarine force”.
“I think Australia should be concerned because all Chinese research ships are dual-purpose. They are expected to co-operate with the People’s Liberation Army, and this particular ship, which belongs to the Institute of Acoustics, has a decades-long relationship with the PLA,” Mr Powell told The Australian.
“Even though they’re ostensibly doing scientific exploration in deep water – which is fine – people should be aware there may be more than one consumer of the information they’re learning while in that trench.
“Australia should be thinking hard about what China was researching there, given Australian submarines are based in southwest Australia and there is a lot going on in that area with AUKUS.”
Live fire exercises
While the ship’s previous research trip to the Diamantina Trench in 2023 raised no such red flags, the latest diversion comes only weeks after the Chinese navy conducted live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea and a naval strike group circumnavigated Australia.
The vessel, equipped with manned and unmanned submarines capable of reaching depths of more than 10,000m, sparked a political furore last week when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was accused of not knowing which agency was monitoring its trajectory.
China’s Foreign Ministry insisted there was no cause for suspicion and it was conducting activities “in accordance with international law”.
China’s state mouthpiece, the Global Times, said Australia was “paranoid” over the vessel and accused Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of “beating the drums of war against China” as a campaign tool.
Australian maritime security expert Jennifer Parker said there had been a “significant over-reaction” in Australia to the ship’s passage, given its track and speed would not permit effective mapping of the seabed.
There was also “no credible evidence to support the spy ship scenario”, or that the vessel was exploring the Diamantina Trench in order to chart submarine paths into the area, she added.
“China does send ships to spy on us. Every single year it has a spy ship surveil Talisman Sabre exercises … but the context is different this time,” Ms Parker, an expert associate at the National Security College, said.
China’s interest in the Diamantina Trench could as easily lie in its polymetallic nodule fields containing nickel, cobalt and copper – metals used in the production of batteries and electric vehicles.
Beijing has been vigorously pursuing deep-sea mining capability to reduce its heavy reliance on imported critical minerals and maintain its influence in the deep-sea domain.
But Peter Jennings, from Strategic Analysis Australia, said it was likely the Tan Suo Yi Hao was doing both things at once.
“China conducts research all around the world to know what resources are out there, what is exploitable with current technology and in the future,” he said.
Under President Xi Jinping’s civil-military fusion strategy, all Chinese research bodies were obliged to conduct studies also of interest to the PLA.
Mr Jennings said that since the 2021 AUKUS pact announcement, China had shown a far greater interest in intelligence-gathering on Australia’s east coast, where a new AUKUS naval base is to be constructed, near the Adelaide submarine construction yard, and around HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, where Australia’s current submarines and AUKUS boats will operate.
“That’s not an accident. They want to know as much as they can about approaches to those locations, the better to sink our ships when the moment arrives,” he said.
The Tan Suo Yi Hao spent 45 days jointly researching New Zealand’s Puysegur Trench with scientists from seven countries before raising red flags in Canberra by diverting around Australia’s southern and southwestern waters.
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