Australia has expressed serious concern over the presence of a Chinese naval spy ship just outside its territorial waters.
The Australian Defence Department said a couple of days ago that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) sent a Type 815 Dongdiao-class Auxiliary General Intelligence (AGI) ship to the Oceanic country’s Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) on July 20 mainly to monitor joint naval exercises between Australia and America. Recently, Navies of the two countries took part in ‘Talisman Sabre’ exercise within the Australian EEZ between Christmas Island and Indonesia.
In a statement, the Defence Department said: “The Chinese vessel has remained outside Australian territorial waters, but inside the Australian EEZ in the Coral Sea. The vessel’s presence has not detracted from the exercise objectives. Australia respects the rights of all states to exercise freedom of navigation in international waters in accordance with international law.”

However, a senior Australian Defence Ministry official strongly criticised Beijing for sending spy ship to the Coral Sea, saying that the Asian giant’s double standard on military surveillance within EEZs became clearer with this move. The official, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that it was indeed an “unfriendly” and “provocative” act. It was the first time when China sent a warship, designed explicitly for military surveillance, to Australian waters. As a precautionary measure, the Australian Air Force immediately sent two fighter jets to the region for monitoring activities of the Chinese vessel, he told the press.
Meanwhile, Director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University in Shanghai Chen Hong has urged Canberra not to “overreact”. He said that global terrorism and the ongoing nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula are major threats to the modern world. “I don’t think Australia should overreact to this incident, as the surveillance ­operation by the PLAN has not been targeted at Australia, but at the joint military exercise,” stressed Chen. He further said: “Such a low-key surveillance operation was symbolic of being responsive to more high-key, more aggressively intended ventures by the US military presence, especially in the South China Sea. It tells the US that China is capable of projecting its naval surveillance into Oceania, as well as into American waters.”

Beijing, too, admitted that it had sent a naval spy ship to Australian waters, with the state-run “Global Times” daily saying: “China’s naval vessels and spy ships have now started to appear in the waters significant to the West. Obviously, this is just a beginning.” The daily slammed Australia for encouraging the US to send warships to South China Sea. “While staunchly supporting US freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea, Australian media outlets are startled at, and are unwilling to accept, the ‘sudden’ appearance of the Chinese spy ship in their adjacent waters,” added Global Times. It said: “European public opinion also felt unease as Chinese warships steamed through the English Channel and entered into the Baltic Sea for joint military drills with Russia.”
The top Chinese political leadership made it clear that Washington and its partners, who are eager to preserve the legal norm of freedom of navigation, would have to accept the PLAN’s activities, or else they should stop sending vessels to Chinese EEZ in South and East China Seas. Beijing also hinted that Chinese warships would soon go to waters off Guam, Hawaii, the Caribbean Sea, or even to the San Diego base, as the Asian powerhouse was fully prepared to counter America’s attempt to increase its naval influence throughout the globe.

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Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das