{"id":33119,"date":"2017-07-26T14:30:13","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T04:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=33119"},"modified":"2017-07-27T09:03:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T23:03:54","slug":"china-spy-ships-shy-generals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/china-spy-ships-shy-generals\/","title":{"rendered":"China: spy ships and shy generals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

The most obvious response to the Chinese intelligence-gathering ship snooping around in Australia\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Coral Sea would have been to put a RAAF P-3 maritime patrol aircraft right over the top of it. There\u2019s nothing the Five Eyes countries won\u2019t already know about the electronic eavesdropping capabilities of the 6,000-tonne Type 815 Dongdiao-class vessel, but that\u2019s no reason not to add more information to our emissions libraries and to give the ship\u2019s crew something to think about.<\/p>\n

A second, slightly more lateral, response would have been to publish imagery from the P-3 so that the Australian community would have an idea what China\u2019s newest intelligence-gathering vessel<\/a> looks like.<\/p>\n

A third and even more interesting step would have been to invite the ship to make a port call. Why ever not? The Port of Darwin is lovely at this time of year and the Type 815\u2019s crew would surely have relished some fish and chips on the wharf. We could have asked the ship\u2019s captain for his thoughts about \u2018options for joint operations to combat cybercrime\u2019\u2014a commitment entered into at the inaugural Australia\u2013China High-Level Security Dialogue<\/a> in Sydney on 24 April.<\/p>\n

Defence hasn\u2019t said if they did a flyover, but such is the phobia about doing or saying anything about Chinese national security posturing, we are unlikely to ever know. As for the sharper and slightly more lateral responses, #forgeddaboutit! We are so nationally spooked by China right now that we don\u2019t know how to talk about the place, let alone how to deal with its more assertive behaviour. According to an ABC report<\/a>, some unnamed Defence officials referred to the presence of the spy ship as an \u2018unfriendly\u2019 and \u2018provocative\u2019 act. But in other respects, the ship\u2019s presence\u2014hardly unusual in maritime affairs\u2014earned the mildest of rebukes.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interesting footnote to the spy vessel story: the Australian media started reporting early on Saturday 22 July<\/a> that the vessel had been \u2018spotted \u201cin the vicinity\u201d of<\/a> the Talisman Sabre 17 war games\u2019. The Type 815 is a modern vessel, not Dr Who\u2019s Tardis. It would have taken days to position itself in the Coral Sea and we would (or should) have been tracking its passage. But its location didn\u2019t become public knowledge until some days after<\/em> Defence issued a media release<\/a> (on Wednesday 19 July) saying that \u2018this week Defence hosted General Wei Liang, Political Commissar, Southern Theatre Command from the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) on a recent goodwill visit to Australia\u2019.<\/p>\n

How convenient! Such good will! No need to let the arrival of the spy ship complicate General Wei Liang\u2019s five-day visit from 15 to 19 July. There\u2019s no hint that the spy ship\u2019s activities were raised with the general, but the media release did make the happy observations that the visit \u2018provided an opportunity to exchange views\u2019, that \u2018a meaningful discussion\u2019 was held and that the visit helped \u2018foster transparency between the Australian Defence Force and China\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019. Truly?<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, transparency with the Australian public wasn\u2019t fostered because it has become the norm for Defence to announce the visit of Chinese generals only after they have left. It seems it\u2019s only safe to put out a media release once the wheels are up on the departing flight.<\/p>\n

To be clear, that media approach is directed by the Chinese when negotiating visits. The Chinese insist on their generals not going anywhere near the Australian media, but they also want access for their own rather more pliant journalists. There are extensive demands for senior visitors to meet the prime minister and ministers; for use of the largest available VIP jets; for the best suites at the best hotels; and for the most senior local representation to greet and farewell at airports.\u00a0 When senior Chinese political figures visit, the expected level of diplomatic flattery rises into the stratosphere. During Premier Li Keqiang\u2019s visit last March, parliament was put into lockdown at a level not seen for the Queen or a visiting US president. From the Chinese embassy\u2019s perspective, those symbols are all key measures of a visit\u2019s success. A senior US official once said to me: it\u2019s not the measure of a mature country to obsess about the size of the complimentary fruit bowl in the visiting VIP\u2019s executive suite.<\/p>\n

But back to the spy ship. This type of salty stooging around is commonplace, and Foreign Minister Bishop made a neat point<\/a> that \u2018China is entitled to have its vessels navigate international waters, just as Australia is entitled to navigate in international waters\u2019. Well, okay, but there are two things to be said about that reply. First, the Type 815 is obviously not on a pleasure cruise. Second, why then characterise calls for Australia to undertake freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea\u2014that is, in areas we regard as not being the sovereign territory of other countries\u2014as something that would \u2018escalate tensions<\/a>\u2019?<\/p>\n

As China becomes increasingly assertive, Australia needs to be prepared to take a tougher diplomatic line. We should call a spade a spade when a spy ship comes snooping. And maybe we could try not to be so pathetically accommodating when it comes to flattering the egos of media-shy Chinese generals and their bosses. China may demand deference, but our expectation is to be treated as an equal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most obvious response to the Chinese intelligence-gathering ship snooping around in Australia\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Coral Sea would have been to put a RAAF P-3 maritime patrol aircraft right over the top …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":33120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,294,301,471],"class_list":["post-33119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-diplomacy","tag-national-security-2","tag-south-china-sea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina: spy ships and shy generals | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/china-spy-ships-shy-generals\/\" \/>\n<meta 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