Australia’s government said Sunday it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the United States and other allies.
It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific.
The comments by a government minister came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties.
More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercise from Sunday across Australia and Papua New Guinea.
“The Chinese military have observed these exercises since 2017 and it would be very unusual if they didn’t do that this time,” said Pat Conroy, Australia’s minister for the defence industry and for Pacific Island affairs.
“We’ll obviously observe their activities and monitor their presence around Australia,” he told Australian public broadcaster ABC.
“People observe these exercises to collect intelligence around procedures, around the electronic spectrum and the use of communications, and we’ll adjust accordingly so that we manage that leakage.”
The strategically important South Pacific region is at the centre of a diplomatic scramble for influence pitting China against its Western rivals.
“We’re seeing in my portfolio of the Pacific, China seeking to secure a military base in the region,” said Conroy, who has previously made the same assessment.
“We’re working very hard to be the primary security partner of choice for the region, because we don’t think that’s a particularly optimal thing for Australia.”
China inked a secretive security pact with Pacific nation Solomon Islands in 2022.
Although the details have never been published, the United States and close ally Australia fear it may be the prelude to some kind of permanent Chinese base.
Australia wants “a balanced region where no one is dominated and no one dominates,” Conroy said.
China’s embassy in Fiji this month insisted claims that it wanted to set up a military base in the region were “false narratives” driven by “ulterior motives.”
Beijing has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building sports stadiums, presidential palaces, hospitals, and roads in Pacific island nations.
Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Nauru have in recent years severed longstanding diplomatic links with Taiwan in favor of China.
