Australia needs to push China back “every time” in the South Pacific contest while Beijing only needs to win once to achieve its goal, warns the former head of Australia’s spy agency.
The comment comes as Australia and China continue jostling for influence in the South Pacific, with Anthony Albanese recently making his first trip as Australian Prime Minister to Indonesia, only days after Chinese Minister Wang Yi finished his tour to eight Pacific nations.
Dennis Richardson, who was Australia’s defence secretary between 2012 and 2017 and is a former director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), on Monday said Beijing would continue to press and challenge in order to establish its military presence in the Pacific eventually.
He noted this would enormously complicate Australia and the U.S defence planning, which is “ultimately what the Chinese are about.”
“Every time the Chinese step up in this space to advance their security interest in the south pacific, we have to press back, and we’ll need to win that contest all the time.”
“We have to win everything; they only have to win once.”
The interaction marks the first high-level contact with Beijing since 2020, when the communist government launched a series of trade wars against Australia in an attempt to retaliate against the then-Liberal government, which called for an independent investigation into the origin of COVID-19.
Marles described the meeting as a “ critical first step” in rebuilding the Canberra-Beijing relationship amid heightened tensions over the Indo-Pacific and China’s recent interception of an Australian warplane over the South China Sea.
“Australia and China’s relationship is complex, and it’s precisely because of this complexity that it is really important that we are engaging in dialogue right now.”
“In moving forward, while there is a change of tone, there is absolutely no change in the substance of Australia’s national interest.”
Former ASIO boss Richardson said the fact that the two Defence Ministers agreed to talk “at the very first opportunity” is “noteworthy” but suggested that Australia shouldn’t “get too far down the track on this.” He further noted that “any starling breakthrough” is unlikely to occur soon.
“A change of government after a decade does bring with it opportunities of this kind,” Richardson said.
“There are still a lot of fundamental differences between China and Australia, which the new government is fully aware of.”
Last week, the Defence department revealed a dangerous incident that took place in May, which saw a Chinese warplane intercepting an Australian maritime surveillance aircraft over the international waters of the South China Sea, leaving the Australian crew fearing for their safety.
Beijing didn’t confirm or deny the incidence, but Chinese defence spokesman Colonel Tan Kefei claimed the warnings were “false information” and accused Australia of “instigating the hostility and confrontation.”
