‘Draw your sword’: China releases video of PLA jet harassing RAAF plane
China’s national broadcaster has released rare footage of a People’s Liberation Army Air Force firing flares and metal chaff at an RAAF plane in a tense encounter over the South China Sea | WATCH
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Nationalistic Chinese have mocked an Australian air force pilot and claimed Beijing had cowed the Albanese government after China’s national broadcaster released rare footage of what appeared to be the People’s Liberation Army Air Force harassing an RAAF plane in a tense encounter over the South China Sea.
The Albanese government has been muted in its initial response to the apparent addition of the encounter between an Australian P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft and a Chinese fighter jet in a recently released documentary run on China’s flagship broadcaster CCTV.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Wednesday the government had “not been able to verify the authenticity of the video”, but defended the behaviour of Australian personnel.
“We engage in a range of activities which are about asserting the rules-based order, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation, freedom of overflight. We do that, and we do that in accordance with international law.
“We have interactions often with the PLA Navy. We do have a dialog with China. Where there have been incidents that have been unsafe and unprofessional, we’ve called them out.”
Mr Marles, the Deputy Prime Minister, declined to comment on the apparent characterisation in the Chinese documentary of an Australian pilot as “the enemy” and defended the government’s approach to handling relations with Beijing.
“We seek to build the most productive relationship that we can with China. We’ve said all along that we’ve sought to stabilise our relationship with China, and work with China where we can, disagree where we must. And we bring that mantra to bear in terms of the way in which we assert the rules-based order through the activities of our Defence Force, our Navy and our Air Force.”
Previously neither the Chinese or Australian governments had released footage of the encounter, which took place in 2022, weeks after Anthony Albanese became prime minister.
The footage featured in the second episode of a six part documentary made by China’s national broadcaster to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party’s army, the PLA, in 2027.
In publicity for the show, CCTV said it had been created to “educate and inspire” Chinese soldiers to follow “Xi Jinping’s Thought on Strengthening the Army”. China’s leader has made achieving a “world-class army”, a key priority during his 12 years in power.
Australia was not named in the show, but widespread reports on China’s internet said the footage was of the infamous 2022 encounter that Defence Minister Richard Marles described as “very dangerous” in some of his first comments after being sworn into his portfolio.
Beijing has told Canberra to keep away from water and air near China, as it tries to push back on military operations by American allies in its near neighbourhood.
The documentary gave a public airing to what is often kept behind closed doors. “You must draw your sword when you meet the enemy,” the Chinese pilot in the encounter said in the documentary.
The incident is one of a number of fraught exchanges between China’s military and Australian forces that have taken place even as the diplomatic relationship between the two countries has modestly improved.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the CCTV broadcast was an “unacceptable glorification of unacceptable military conduct” and condemned the “timidity” of the government’s response.
“There has been too much timidity on the part of the Prime Minister in particular,” Senator Birmingham said.
He said he was concerned the propaganda video described the Australian pilot as an “enemy” and called on the government to make strong representations to China “at ministerial level”.
Many Chinese cheered the release of the footage of the PLA fighter jet swerving around the “foreign” fighter and releasing aluminium chaff into the “enemy’s” engine. Online commentators gloated at a previous disclosure by the Australian government that the RAAF pilot had received psychological counselling after the encounter.
“Western pilots, accustomed to being domineering, had never experienced a powerful blow, and therefore developed psychological problems,” said one.
Chinese news reports claimed the “tough measures” by the PLA had made the Albanese government take a “more cautious” approach than the Morrison government.
“Obviously, this change is because after suffering a major blow, they finally realised the imbalance between the two sides and no longer acted as a sharp knife for the United States against China.
“Faced with provocation, the People’s Liberation Army took tough measures to fight back, which made Western countries deeply aware of China’s determination to safeguard its sovereignty,” the report said.
Chinese news reports also suggested the CCTV disclosure could help to warn other “villains” operating in the South China Sea about the PLA’s willingness to take action to “prevent them from continuing to make trouble”.
The furore over the footage comes ahead of a visit to Beijing by Treasurer Jim Chalmers next week and as the first Australian parliamentary delegation in five years readies for a separate trip in October.
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