Penny Wong issues warning on Chinese threat as Anthony Albanese prepares to fly to Beijing

Penny Wong has expressed alarm over Beijing’s strategic ambitions and surging military capabilities on the eve of Anthony Albanese’s departure for a six-day visit to China.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has issued a warning about China's surging military capacity.

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong has expressed alarm over Beijing’s strategic ambitions and surging military capabilities, two days before Anthony Albanese departs for a six-day visit to China that will be closely watched in Washington for any signs of Australian kowtowing.

Speaking in Malaysia, Senator Wong said Australia didn’t agree with all of Donald Trump’s policies, but strongly supported an ongoing US presence in the Indo-Pacific as a vital counterweight to China’s efforts to shift the ­regional balance of power in its favour.

“China continues to assert its strategic influence and project its military power further into our region,” Senator Wong told the Institute for Strategic and International Studies.

“And we have seen the worrying pace of China’s nuclear and conventional military build-up, without the transparency that the region expects.”

The sharp assessment comes as Taiwan’s envoy to Australia, Douglas Hsu, warns China is ­intensifying military and “grey zone” threats against the self-governed territory, prompting Taipei to step up its preparations for a potential invasion.

Writing in The Australian, Mr Hsu urges the Albanese government to help bring Taiwan further into the international system by ramping up bilateral ties and supporting its bid to join one of the world’s biggest trading blocs.

He says the territory is “perfectly positioned to meet the high standards” of the 12-nation ­Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership, which Australia is chairing this year. Beijing is also pushing to join the CPTPP, while vehemently opposing Taiwan’s application, and is expected to ramp up lobbying of the Prime Minister over the issue during his visit from Saturday.

Mr Albanese will have his fourth meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the trip but has been unable to secure his first face-to-face with the US President amid a snap Pentagon review of the AUKUS submarine pact and his government’s refusal to agree to the Trump administration’s demands for a near doubling of the defence budget.

The Prime Minister pushed back against the White House in a speech last Saturday, lauding wartime Labor prime minister John Curtin for refusing to outsource foreign policy and giving Australians the confidence to speak “for ourselves, as a sovereign state”. He reportedly sharpened his remarks in a subsequent question-and-answer session, saying he was a supporter of AUKUS, “but that doesn’t mean that we are subservient to any other country”.

Anthony Albanese is caught between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping as he tries to balance Australia’s strategic interests and its relationship with its biggest trading partner.

Senator Wong, in Malaysia for meetings with Southeast Asian counterparts, sought to set the tone for Mr Albanese’s China visit, urging Beijing to “wield its strength in a way that contributes to its security and economic resilience”. She said Australia was ­realistic about China’s intention to assert its influence as a major regional power, while urging it not to provoke a clash with the US. “None of us, including the United States, seeks military confrontation with China – in the South China Sea, the East China Sea or across the Taiwan Strait,” Senator Wong said.

“What we seek is a balance of power, where no country dominates and no country is dominated.”

She said Australia’s realistic assessment of China’s place in the region was behind the government’s efforts to stabilise the Australia-China relationship, and strengthen its partnerships with the rest of the region.

Her speech follows a warning by Treasurer Jim Chalmers that Australia will continue to rebuff Chinese calls for the weakening of foreign investment rules barring its companies from taking stakes in critical infrastructure, energy, data and minerals ventures.

Mr Albanese will also push back on Beijing’s call for co-operation on artificial intelligence amid growing security concerns in the West over Chinese technology, including its increasingly ubiquitous internet-connected cars. But he will talk up the prospect of expanded business links between Australia and its biggest trading partner, which will be underscored by a major Business Council of Australia delegation comprising the chiefs of 14 of the nation’s biggest companies including Rio Tinto, BHP, Fortescue Metals Group, ANZ and Macquarie Group.

China is rapidly developing its military capabilities under Xi Jinping, who is determined to shift the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. Picture: AP

The Prime Minister will depart for China’s financial capital, Shanghai, on Saturday morning, before heading to Beijing and on to Chengdu, where Chinese officials will likely seek to corral him into a photo opportunity with one or more pandas at the world’s largest panda-breeding centre.

In a sign of Australia’s lack of trust in Beijing, Australian officials accompanying Mr Albanese on the trip have been ordered to leave personal and government devices at home and travel with “burner” phones and laptops, due to the constant threat posed by cyber spies.

Mr Hsu, head of Taiwan’s Economic and Cultural Office in Australia, says Mr Albanese must exercise caution during his visit. “While dialogue and mutually beneficial co-operation are important, Australians know successful engagement requires an understanding that China’s political system prioritises state power over all else,” he writes. “Under Xi Jinping’s rule, the last 13 years has seen a dramatic transformation in China’s strategic posture and military ambitions. His China has militarised the South China Sea in defiance of international law. It has imposed its will on Hong Kong, undercutting its long-agreed autonomy. It has weaponised trade and levied punitive trade sanctions on Taiwan’s agricultural products, as well as Australian wine, beef, barley and coal.”

Taiwan is beginning 10 days of exercises aimed at readying the territory for a potential invasion by China, which Mr Xi has ordered his forces to be ready to undertake by 2027.