{"id":73034,"date":"2022-06-06T14:32:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T04:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=73034"},"modified":"2022-06-06T14:41:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T04:41:48","slug":"close-encounters-of-the-pla-kind-xi-shows-the-south-pacific-its-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-encounters-of-the-pla-kind-xi-shows-the-south-pacific-its-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Close encounters of the PLA kind: Xi shows the South Pacific its future"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The 26 May incident<\/a> where a Chinese fighter aircraft fired flares and chaff at an Australian maritime patrol aircraft in international airspace above the South China Sea, risking a potentially fatal crash, is not an isolated episode. And it\u2019s not peculiar to the Australia\u2013China relationship, so it would be wrong to see it as all about us and connected with any notion that Beijing is focusing much effort on a positive \u2018reset\u2019 of our bilateral relationship.<\/p>\n

Instead, this type of aggression is the face the People\u2019s Liberation Army is showing to numerous nations and in more places as its power-projection ability grows. It\u2019s doing what Xi Jinping wants from it in his \u2018new era\u2019 of a Sino-centred world, controlled by the CCP.<\/p>\n

On several occasions including on the same day as the incident with the Australian jet, Chinese fighter aircraft aggressively and dangerously harassed a Canadian military aircraft enforcing United Nations sanctions along the border with North Korea. As the Canadian government stated<\/a> after the incidents, the PLA Air Force aircraft \u2018did not adhere to international air safety norms\u2019. It added \u2018These interactions are unprofessional and\/or put the safety of our Royal Canadian Air Force personnel at risk.\u2019<\/p>\n

On 24 May<\/a>, Chinese bombers flew a joint patrol with Russian bombers over the sea of Japan and East China Sea to add military tension to the Quad leaders<\/a>\u2019 meeting happening in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

The problem is that Xi has instructed his military to operate this way. He seems to want to make the PLA such a risky, dangerous entity to approach, that other forces will give it a wide berth for their own and the PLA\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s reminding many of the 2001 incident<\/a> when a Chinese fighter collided with a US EP-3C Orion surveillance aircraft and damaged it so badly that it had to make a forced landing on Hainan Island. The Chinese pilot died. Now we have prospect of this happening on any day of the week to a number of nations\u2019 military aircraft and ships who encounter Xi\u2019s PLA. The PLA risks its own losses in these encounters also.<\/p>\n

The Chinese military is acting under Xi Jinping\u2019s instructions to be \u2018primed to fight at any second\u2019. The PLA is comfortable using force during peacetime<\/a>, and even has a term for this: \u2018peacetime confrontational military operations\u2019. So, the Canadian and Australian examples are not local Chinese commanders or even individual pilots acting on their own. They are doing what Xi and the PLA high command want and expect.<\/p>\n

This direction is why Chinese foreign ministry officials routinely deny documented aggression by their military and blame others in egregious statements <\/a>along the lines of: \u2018[relevant country] should respect the efforts made by China and ASEAN countries to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, instead of frequently sending vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea\u2019.<\/p>\n

True to form, the state media mouthpiece, the Global Times,<\/em> has done just this in an article<\/a> headed \u2018PLA aircraft deal with Canadian, Australian provocative close-in recon in East and South China Seas\u2019. Apparently, \u2018by accusing the Chinese warplanes of threatening flight safety, the two members of the Five Eyes complained first while being the ones who are guilty in the first place\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Chinese government can\u2019t mention that China has no legitimacy to its expansive claim to the South China Sea, because its arguments were comprehensively rejected by a 2016 ruling<\/a> in a case the Philippines brought against it, based on the international law China helped draft and then signed up to\u2014the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea<\/a>. So, its warplanes were enforcing rights China does not have in international airspace where every nation has the right to operate without harassment.<\/p>\n

And the Global Times<\/em> didn\u2019t mention the UN mission that the Canadians were performing along the North Korean border, because it would be too uncomfortable to note that China is a party to the sanctions and so should actually be assisting with their enforcement, not risking the lives of its own pilots and Canadian aircrew to prevent that from happening.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

There are some particularly dangerous features of what the PLA J-16 did during its close encounter with the Australian P8-A Poseidon. Letting off flares close to the Royal Australian Air Force aircraft is one of those.<\/p>\n

But the fact that the Chinese J-16 pilot flew close in front of the P-8 and fired chaff back towards the P-8 while manoeuvring dangerously is more than disturbing. Chaff and flares are used to distract missiles fired at planes, so the PLA pilot had no legitimate reason to do this. Depending on what the PLA\u2019s decoy systems are composed of and how much material gets ingested (neither is clear), this could damage the aircraft\u2019s engines and cause it to crash. Certainly, the combination of flares, chaff and close-proximity dangerous flying risks a mid-air collision and crash. The PLA pilot would have known this, so it is deliberate aggression and an escalation from the Chinese military.<\/p>\n

Of course, if Beijing was at all serious about any positive \u2018resetting\u2019 of its relationship with Australia, it could have instructed its military to refrain from such hostility. But it hasn\u2019t. Its rhetoric of resetting<\/a> is all about seeking policy change in Canberra and allowing Beijing to dictate both what it wants from Australia and what we have to do to achieve that.<\/p>\n

Beijing could also apologise to Australia and Canada and discipline the PLA pilots involved and their commanders. But no one who\u2019s watched how Xi has stoked violent nationalism, turned his diplomats into \u2018wolf warriors\u2019 and let violent voices shout online for the Ukrainian people to die to deliver Vladimir Putin victory in his horrific war can expect to see this from Beijing.<\/p>\n

These latest acts of PLA aggression should be seen in that light. It\u2019s Beijing saying the world\u2014not just Australia and Canada\u2014now must live with how the Chinese leadership chooses to use its military power. It\u2019s trying to normalise its behaviour and force others to adjust in response.<\/p>\n

Sophistication and nuance is not something Xi and his officials and military are practising. Instead, hard power, assertion, coercion, aggression and denial are the primary characteristics of Xi\u2019s \u2018new era\u2019. In this era, Russia is China\u2019s \u2018no limits\u2019 partner in aggression, as shown by the joint<\/a>\u00a0bomber flights.<\/p>\n

No nation dealing with Beijing\u2019s assertion of military power should feel lonely or allow China to isolate it in bilateral discussions. The broad, united approach to facing down Putin in his horrific war must be applied to the China\u2013Russia strategic partnership.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a connection between these potentially deadly military acts by China and the future of the South Pacific.<\/p>\n

How glad the 10 nations who didn\u2019t sign<\/a> Beijing\u2019s proposed regional security pact must be that they rejected this offer. The Canadian and Australian incidents, together with the joint Russian-Chinese bomber mission are graphic demonstrations of why enabling the Chinese military to operate more routinely and easily in the South Pacific\u2014as Beijing wants<\/a> and as Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare<\/a> is helping happen\u2014is bad news for South Pacific nations.<\/p>\n

This is \u2018security assistance\u2019 the PLA way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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