While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood in front of the Business Council of Australia’s annual dinner last night and highlighted his government’s efforts to mend fences with Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was releasing an incendiary video that appears to show a confrontation dating back to 2022 between an Australian P-8 Poseidon and a Chinese J-16 fighter.
The Defence Department said it knew of the “unverified” video but did not say whether they believed it to be genuine.
Albanese told business leaders that “stabilising the relationship with China has cleared away nearly $20 billion in impediments for our farmers, growers, producers, and miners.”
Meanwhile, Beijing’s action comes just two months after Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia—the first by a Chinese premier in seven years—which was seen as an indication that diplomatic relations were returning to normal.
The video shows a confrontation over the South China Sea in which a People’s Liberation Army aircraft flew closely alongside the RAAF plane, firing flares, before manoeuvring in front of it and releasing “chaff” into its flight path, causing aluminium fragments to be sucked into the P-8’s engine.
During the footage, the J-16 pilot can be heard saying he’s “facing a strong enemy, a tough opponent” and talking about not being “afraid.”
“Unacceptable Conduct”: Opposition
Coalition Foreign Affairs spokesperson Simon Birmingham called the video’s publication “an unacceptable glorification of unacceptable military conduct,” and called on the government to “show strength” when dealing with Beijing.“There are two serious points of concern here,” he said. “The first goes back to the military conduct itself. There are far too many instances now in relation to Chinese military conduct towards Australia and many other regional partners, particularly and notably the Philippines in recent times, where that conduct has been unduly risky, aggressive, and creates a circumstance of possible miscalculation or escalation that none of us would wish to see.
“The second issue being, of course ... this propaganda video which appears to glorify and encourage this type of conduct, rather than seeking to ensure that military conduct is undertaken responsibly. And disturbingly within this video, it appears to describe Australia as an enemy and an opponent.
“And that is certainly not how we see ourselves in relation to the type of relationship we wish to have with China.”
He said such incidents mean the Albanese government must take a stronger attitude toward Beijing and CCP officials.
“There has been too much timidity on the part of the prime minister in particular, who infamously refused to raise issues in relation to Chinese military conduct with the Chinese president when he had the opportunity.”
Albanese subsequently criticised multiple acts of aggression by Beijing in public statements.
Peace and Stability
While the Coalition welcomed the thawing of the relationship between the two countries, which would bring benefits in trade, economic ties, and cooperation, Birmingham cautioned that “we want to do so in an environment of peace and stability [and] that peace and stability is jeopardised by the way in which the People’s Liberation Army of China conducts itself, and this type of risky conduct does need to be called out.“When the Prime Minister of Australia has the opportunity, face to face with the President of China, to raise these types of concerns, we should take it up. Not because we wish to damage relations, but because we wish to have a peaceful and stable region, and we are willing to call out conduct that risks and undermines that,” he said.
“We should be making strong representations to China about this video, [about] describing Australia as an enemy, and for the glorification of this type of unacceptable military conduct.”
Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie said if the PLA video was authentic, “This is not the actions of a friend, this is not the language of a friend, in fact, it just demonstrates to the Australian people why we have a trust deficit with Beijing.
“If this is how they treat their friends, I'd hate to think of the way they treat their enemies.”
The Australian Defence Force issued a statement stating that it will “continue to exercise the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”
