2 weeks Ago By Peter Jennings
I n February, international attention focused on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) doing a clockwise circumnavigation of the Australian continent and engaging in live-fire weapons drills in the Tasman Sea. Beijing’s ambassador in Canberra claimed that “there is no need for Australia to feel concerned” about the actions of the Chinese fleet, maintaining that appropriate notice had been given about the drills. That was not the Australian view.
A Virgin Australia airlines pilot bound for New Zealand was the first to know of the drills as they were happening by monitoring an “international guard channel” on the flight deck. Numerous flights were diverted from the zone, necessarily, because one drill involved “detecting a simulated unknown aerial target”. Defence Minister Richard Marles mildly chided Beijing for providing insufficient notice but it was more striking that the Albanese government largely made excuses for China.
Albanese inaccurately said...
.
