'Never experienced': Chinese intelligence ship spotted off Australia

Created: 05/13/2022 1:39 p.m

By: Sven Hauberg

A picture of the Australian Ministry of Defense shows the Chinese warship.

© Australian Government/Department of Defense

A Chinese "intelligence warship" has been spotted off the west coast of Australia.

The incident could be related to the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Munich/Canberra – The defense minister speaks of an “aggressive act”: The Australian authorities have tracked down a Chinese warship off the west coast of the country that has been in the region for a week.

Defense Secretary Peter Dutton said on Friday (May 13).

The "Haiwangxing" has also entered the exclusive economic zone of Australia, i.e. an area that extends twelve to 200 nautical miles off the coast.

"We've never seen a PLA ship come that far south," Dutton said.

The “intelligence warship” was first sighted south down the coast to the town of Exmouth and finally further north near Broome in the Kimberley region.

The aim of the warship is to "collect information along the coast," said Dutton.

For this purpose, the "Haiwangxing" was "in the immediate vicinity of military and secret service facilities on the west coast of Australia".

Chinese warship off Australia: Defense Minister speaks of "strange timing"

Australian authorities monitored the ship's activities "very closely": "We obviously had a number of aircraft involved in monitoring this particular ship," Dutton said.

The Secretary of Defense further spoke of "strange timing".

Australia will elect a new parliament on May 21, and the country's relationship with China is currently shaping the election campaign more than almost any other topic.

The background is a conflict between the two countries that has been going on for years and that escalated in spring 2020.

At the time, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, to which Beijing responded with economic sanctions.

A security agreement between Beijing and the Solomon Islands is also currently straining Chinese-Australian relations.

The government in Canberra fears that China could use the agreement to expand its influence in the region.

The island state of the Solomon Islands is located about 2000 kilometers north-east of Australia.

While Beijing is talking about a normal process, concerns are growing in Australia that China could build a military base in the Solomon Islands.

China and Australia: dispute over a security agreement with the Solomon Islands

According to polls, the opposition Labor Party is ahead in the parliamentary elections on May 21.

The centre-left party could replace the coalition government of the liberal and national parties and provide the country's next prime minister in Anthony Albanese.

Albanese's party has repeatedly accused Morrison's government of failing to anticipate China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

Meanwhile, China's new ambassador to Canberra, Xiao Qian, said he hopes for better relations with Australia.

"We look forward to the future opportunities that China and Australia have - we can strive together to review our past and look to the future," Xiao told Sky News Australia on Friday.