Australian helicopter and Chinese fighter involved in so-called ‘near miss’

An encounter between an Australian helicopter and a Chinese fighter jet on Saturday has been exploited by Australia and the US to reignite tensions with Beijing. Australian Labor government figures, along with corporate media, have made incendiary accusations that the Chinese military has endangered lives and risks sparking armed conflict.

Royal Australian Navy in joint operations with the US Navy, December 2023 (Photo: Facebook/Joint Operations Commando)

The incident is the latest in a number of “near misses” between Australian and Chinese forces. As with those previous encounters, the Chinese government has dismissed the Australian version of events as a fabrication. It is alleged that the Australian military carried out a provocation as part of the wider US-led military build-up to war with China.

In a statement on Monday, Australia’s Department of Defense claimed the HMAS Hobart naval destroyer had engaged in “routine activities” over the weekend as part of a US-led coalition enforcing United Nations sanctions on North Korea.

“During these activities, a Royal Australian Navy MH-60R helicopter launched from HMAS Hobart was intercepted by a PLA-AF fighter aircraft,” the statement said. “The PLA-AF aircraft released flares over the flight path of the Australian Defense Force (ADF) helicopter.

In media appearances on Monday, Labor Defense Minister Richard Marles reiterated the allegations and the Defense Department’s statement that the Chinese actions were “unsafe” and “unacceptable.” He said he had protested to Beijing in this regard.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised to protest the incident directly to Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

The Biden administration also quickly intervened. US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Kritenbrink, who is in Australia, said the incident was part of a pattern of a “more aggressive and assertive” Chinese military. The US and Australia, he declared, would continue to “fly, sail and operate” wherever they wanted, “even in the face of such activities.”

Media reporting in Australia has either uncritically repeated the government’s position or gone on to complain that the Chinese ambassador has not been ‘called’ and declared that relations with Beijing are ‘not normal’. The media has generally reacted hysterically to any Chinese naval activity outside the mainland, such as in the disputed South China Sea, not to mention those near Australia.

The HMAS Hobart was moored in the Yellow Sea, about 4,000 miles from Australia. The sea is a semi-enclosed waterway between the Chinese mainland and the Korean Peninsula.

The maintenance of punitive UN sanctions against North Korea is a worn-out pretext for military operations in the airspace and waters close to mainland China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jan said at a press conference on Tuesday: “What actually happened was that an Australian military aircraft deliberately flew within a short distance of Chinese airspace in a provocative move that compromised China’s maritime and air security.” endangered, in the name of enforcing UN security. council decisions.”

While denouncing Australia’s “risky steps,” Lin said China was “taking necessary measures on the ground to warn and alarm the Australian side.”

Yesterday, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Zhang Xiaogang added that the Chinese Navy conducted exercises in the Yellow Sea over the weekend. He claimed that the “HMAS Hobart had dispatched a naval helicopter three times to conduct close reconnaissance and disrupt the normal training activities of the Chinese side.”

Unfazed, the Australian press claimed that China was ‘changing its narrative’. However, approaching Chinese waters and spying on Chinese military activities in those waters are hardly mutually exclusive. The explicit purpose of Hobart’s operations is surveillance, and given its proximity to China, there is no reason to believe that such surveillance would target only North Korea.

Australian claims that they are upholding ‘international law’ – i.e. US and UN sanctions on North Korea – are highly selective. The US and its allies, including Australia, blithely reject the statements of United Nations officials condemning Israel’s attack on the Palestinians in Gaza and calling for a ceasefire, and instead continue to support the Zionist genocide .

Whatever exactly happened on Saturday is part of a pattern. Australian forces are conducting operations far from the Australian coast and near their Chinese counterparts, under US leadership. These operations happen entirely behind the backs of the population. They are only reported when a meeting takes place, which is then used to smear China and once again accuse the country of violating the “rules-based order,” that is, Washington’s rules.

Last November, Australia claimed that a Chinese destroyer had ignored communications from the HMAS Toowoomba, an Australian frigate, that it was involved in diving operations. The Defense Ministry and Minister Marles stated that the Chinese destroyer had used sonar, endangering the health of the divers, a claim that Beijing flatly rejected. That incident took place in or near Japanese waters.

In June 2022, Australia had claimed that a Chinese military aircraft ‘intercepted’ an Australian P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea on May 26. This had resulted in a ‘dangerous manoeuvre’ and a ‘security threat’ to Australian personnel. . The Chinese labeled the incident an Australian provocation.

These events took place under conditions of further US and allied military build-up, explicitly attacking China.

Australia is rapidly becoming militarized, including purchasing nuclear-powered submarines through the AUKUS pact with the US and UK. That is just part of a broader program that includes a vastly expanded U.S. base of operations, including bombers and other strike capabilities. Australia’s own armed forces are being completely overhauled, with the explicit aim of preparing to wage a major war in the Indo-Pacific, mainly through the acquisition of missiles and other offensive weapons.

Washington is overseeing the consolidation of a series of anti-China alliances. The country is actively fueling territorial disputes, especially between the Philippines and China over parts of the South China Sea. That also included close encounters between the Philippines and American allied forces and Chinese forces.

The latest incident underlines the recklessness of this program aimed at securing American hegemony in the region and globally. While the US is creating the conditions for nuclear war with Russia in the Ukrainian conflict and supporting the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza, Washington and its allies are carrying out activities that threaten disaster in the Indo-Pacific.

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