Australia scrambled an air force surveillance plane earlier this month to monitor an unannounced Chinese military exercise that took the emerging superpower’s ships closer to Australian territory than ever before.
In what observers say is a significant strategic development, China carried out combat simulations at the beginning of the month between Christmas Island and Indonesia in an apparent flexing of its growing naval muscle.
China had not announced the exercise. When Australia became aware that the three Chinese vessels were sailing across the waters to the north, the Royal Australian Air Force sent an AP-3C Orion maritime surveillance plane from RAAF Base Edinburgh, near Adelaide, to observe.
The Chinese flotilla – two destroyers and a landing ship able to carry hundreds of marines – came closer than the People’s Liberation Army Navy ships had ever come while carrying out such an exercise. It was the first time China had carried out a military simulation in Australia’s maritime approaches.
The three warships came through the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, skirted along the southern side of Java – taking them close to Christmas Island – before turning north through the Lombok Strait next to Bali.
Analysts stressed China’s move was legal – taking place in international waters – and not inherently hostile. But it did constitute a signal by Beijing that it meant to become a truly global naval power, which fundamentally changed Australia’s strategic position. Rory Medcalf, director of the Lowy Institute’s international security program, said China was sending a message it considered the Indian Ocean part of its maritime domain as well as the Pacific.
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