‘Not searching but spying’: expert view on Chinese MH370 ship

The China ship searching for MH370 has probably spent more time spying on Australian military ­activity, say experts.

The Chinese government ship hailed by Transport Minister Darren Chester for searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has probably spent more time spying on Australian military ­activity, according to security ­experts.

The Australian revealedear­lier this month that the Chinese search and rescue vessel Dong Hai Jiu 101 has hardly performed any actual search operations in the seven months since it first came to Fremantle in February.

An analysis by The Australian of weekly operational bulletins by the federal government’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre has determined that the vessel’s sonar imaging “towfish” has in fact been in the water looking for the downed aircraft for only 17 to 30 days.

The ship’s captain gave up trying to search altogether early last month, with the JACC ­reporting that the ship would “remain at anchor off Fremantle until weather conditions improve”.

The Dong Hai Jiu 101 is a major component of China’s $20 million contribution to the $180m effort to find the Boeing 777, which disappeared on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board, ending up in the southern Indian Ocean according to satellite tracking data.

Mr Chester joined the ­Chinese consul-general in Perth, Lei Kezhong, on a visit to the ship in April, .

“On behalf of the Australian government, I thanked the ­Chinese government for its contribution and the captain and crew for their efforts in the search for MH370,” Mr Chester said in a press release at the time.

But leading security experts Greg Barton from Deakin University, Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings, and Australian National University academic Clive Williams told The Australian that as a Chinese government vessel, as a matter of course the Dong Hai Jiu 101 would be monitoring Australian and allied military operations.

“I would be surprised if a ­vessel like the Dong Hai Jiu 101 did not have an intelligence ­collection role,” said Mr Williams, a former Australian Army officer who was director of security intelligence.

Mr Williams said Western Australia was “target rich” for Chinese spy operations, with the navy’s submarine base and the army’s Special Air Service Regiment in the Perth area, and top secret joint facilities for spying and naval communications in other parts of the state.

The JACC did not respond to a question about whether the Dong Hai Jiu 101 might be spying.

The Chinese embassy in Canberra and the Chinese consulate in Perth did not respond.

In another MH370 development yesterday, Mr Chester ­issued a statement saying debris found in Madagascar by amateur American MH370 investigator Blaine Gibson had not been identifiable as coming from the aircraft “or indeed even a Boeing 777”.

“What is known is that contrary to speculation there is no evidence the item was ­exposed to heat or fire,” Mr Chester said.

Mr Gibson had claimed the debris would be a “game changer”.